Himalayan Gilded Copper Deer Head

Pairs of of deer, one female and one male, with their feet tucked beneath their bodies and with their heads raised in an attentive manner, symbolise the audience of Shakyamuni Buddha at the deer park near Sarnath in what today is southern Nepal. The Buddha had reached enlightenment and so preached the eight-fold path towards liberation from the suffering of everyday life. Typically, such images were made in hammered copper sheet which was then gilded. This well-modelled deer head is from one such statue. It has a pair of erect ears (ideal for listening), wide-open eyes and a closed mouth. The contours of the jaw and cheeks closely follow those of an actual deer.

Such images of deer would flank either side of an eight-spoked wheel of Dharma which symbolises the teachings of the Buddha. Usually, the deer and the wheel were placed above the front gate of a Buddhist monastery or atop its roof. The male deer would be on the right, and the female on the left, and both placed so they would be looking at the dharma wheel between them.

Male deer usually were depicted with just one horn and female deer with no horn, so the example here is of a female.

The example here is accompanied by a custom-made display stand. It has obvious, significant age.