Tiny Treasures

Though Nepalese art can be massive in size, some of the most magnificent and important works are actually quite small. While you might be drawn to the largest or most flashy works of art in the gallery, master craftmanship is often evident at a micro scale. Check out these tiny treasures from the Rubin Museum’s collection.

This 13th-century sculpture captures the magnificence of Garuda—Vishnu’s animal vehicle—in a small package. Though he’s only eight inches tall and four inches wide, his broad chest and elongated wingspan suggest his power and significance to the Nepalese people. Garuda is known for being a mythical creature with incredible military might. You wouldn’t know it from looking at this small sculpture, but Garuda is supposed to be incredibly large with a wingspan of 330 yojanas (which roughly equals around 3,000 miles). This sculpture was most likely part of a much larger structure, demonstrating the incredible attention to detail used by artisans of the Kathmandu Valley.

In the Kathmandu Valley, Vasudhara is an important goddess of the harvest. This sculpture from the 12th century is only about seven inches tall and six inches wide. The name “Vasudhara” means “shower of wealth,” a reference to the abundance she provides. In the Kathmandu Valley, Buddhists will worship her at the exact moment the rice becomes ready to harvest.

This 16th-century sculpture of Indra is incredibly delicate and conveys a sense of regality fitting for the king of the gods. Despite his high status, he is still quite small, with a height of about three and a half inches tall, three inches wide, and two and a half inches deep. He wears his iconic round crown etched with cloud foliage, tying him to the sky as the god of thunder and lighting. His pose has a life-like fluidity to it, a key trait of the Nepalese sculptural style.

Don’t underestimate his size! Coming in at five inches tall and three inches wide, the tiny Kumara rides his mount, a peacock, while he holds a spear in his right hand. Worshiped during the festival of Sithi Nakha, Kumara signals the beginning of the rice planting season and the start of the monsoon season. According to curator Guatama Vajracharya, the Nepalese consider Kumara to be the archetypical “rain baby” representing both the water droplet and the seed necessary to produce a successful harvest in the fall.