The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Portable Shrine

c. 1500

Tibet

wood with mineral pigments and metal
Diameter: 16.2 cm (6 3/8 in.); Overall: 25.4 cm (10 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1968.214
Location: 237 Himalayan

Did You Know?

Tantric practice can be performed alone in any location; this shrine could be used by a traveling practitioner for meditation, visualization, prayer, and recitation of mantras.

Description

Carved from a solid section of a log, the shrine contains images of protectors of tantric Buddhism—a branch that developed in northern India and became prominent in the Himalayas by the 700s. The central figure in the top row is Padmasambhava (Indian, active in Tibet in the 740s), venerated as the founder of one of the four main Tibetan monastic orders. Incised on the exterior are images of protectors, mantras written in Tibetan script, and a sacred funerary monument called a stupa. Tantric practice emphasizes recitation of mantras that invoke the powers of compassion, wisdom, and protection.
  • November 21–24, 1904
    (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France, Collection G... Œuvres d'art et de haute curiosité du Tibet sale, lot no. 791)
    1940s?–1961
    (Eduard Lingero, Belgium, sold to Claude De Marteau)
    1961–1968
    (Claude De Marteau [d. 2017], Brussels, Belgium, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1968–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Deniker, Joseph and Deshayes, Émile. Catalogue de la première partie des œuvres d'art et de haute curiosité du Tibet: collection G.... Paris: Moreau, 1904. Mentioned and Reproduced: lot no. 791, pp. 219–220 gallica.bnf.fr
    Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1968.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 1 (January 1969): 3–50. Reproduced: p. 37; Mentioned: p. 49, no. 151 www.jstor.org
  • Himalayan Gallery 237 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14, 2024-March 20, 2025).
    Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 5-September 15, 2013).
    Year in Review for 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).
  • {{cite web|title=Portable Shrine|url=false|author=|year=c. 1500|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.214