Dimensions: Height 4,3 cm Wide 3,4 cm Depth 2,4 cm

Weight: 61,6 grams

Cast in bronze, the figure depicts a mahasiddha (great accomplished master), very likely Virūpa, seated in lalitāsana (royal ease) upon a double-lotus base. The right hand is raised in a commanding gesture, recalling Virūpa’s legendary act of halting the sun, while the left rests upon the knee. The figure is naturalistically modelled, with a rounded belly, strong limbs, and expressive face framed by wavy hair cascading to the shoulders.

He wears only simple ornaments — earrings and a necklace — in keeping with the iconography of siddhas as ascetics and yogic adepts who transcended conventional norms. The lotus base is crisply detailed with overlapping petals, while the surface of the bronze has developed a deep, dark patina from centuries of ritual use.

Virūpa is one of the most revered tantric masters in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, central to the transmission of the Lamdré (“Path and Fruit”) teachings that form the doctrinal foundation of the Sakya school. His image served not only as a focus of devotion but also as a representation of the continuity of esoteric transmission. Small portable bronzes such as this were used by practitioners in personal rituals, reinforcing the unbroken link to the enlightened masters of the past.