Kashmir, a fertile valley nestled between the highest ranges of the Himalayan mountains, was a revered land of Buddhist learning, arts, and culture from the eighth to the thirteenth century.
Kashmir, a fertile valley nestled between the highest ranges of the Himalayan mountains, was a revered land of Buddhist learning, arts, and culture from the eighth to the thirteenth century.
Kashmiri art was one of the main sources of art in the Western Himalayan kingdoms, which includes areas in present-day northern India—Ladakh, Zangskar, Spiti, Lahaul, and Kinnaur—and the province of western Tibet known as Ngari. Kashmir was a significant destination on trade routes that traversed the neighboring Western Himalayas and connected Western and Central Asia. Until the fourteenth century Kashmir was an important center of Esoteric or Tantric Buddhism, which took root in Tibet. Many of the conventions for depicting the deities of Tantric Buddhism were transmitted from Kashmir. The neighboring areas of Swat and Gilgit, often referred to as the Greater Kashmir region, also share characteristics of Kashmiri art.
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Kashmir or Himachal Pradesh, India
11th century
The art of the northwestern Indian area of Kashmir has greatly influenced Tibetan Buddhist art in both style and content. Tantric or Esoteric practice and its accompanying imagery, featuring deities with many heads and arms, developed and flourished in Kashmir. Many of the earliest Himalayan bronzes depicting such multi-appendaged tantric deities are from this region.
Kashmiri artistic inspiration is visible in this sculpture of a tantric deity from the neighboring region of Himachal Pradesh. Several features typical of Kashmiri art are present, including the deity’s broad chest and pronounced navel, long garland, and floral crown and earrings.
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