Hand Made Copper Alloy with 24 Karat Gold Gilded and Hand Painted Face 8.25" Troma Nagmo Jogini Statue

Troma Nagmo Jogini Statue

 Troma Nagmo – The Wrathful Black Mother

Troma Nagmo (Tib. khros ma nag mo), the Wrathful Black Mother (Skt. Krishna Kali, Krishna Krodhini), dominates the centre of this gold-on-black composition. She is extremely fierce, as youthful and nubile as a sixteen-year-old, and black in colour like the darkness at the end of time. With her right leg drawn up and her left leg bent in bow-and-arrow posture, she dances upon the golden sun-disc of her lotus seat, with her left foot pressing down upon the breasts of a naked female demon that has been thrown down onto its back. This fierce demon reveals her sharp teeth and vagina, and her breasts are the seat of desire, thus her corpse represents the concept of the self-cherishing attitude that is sacrificed through the practice of the chod ritual. Troma is the Great Mother of Compassion. Member of the Buddha family, her practice is one of the highest level practices in Vajrayana. Through the practice of Troma we find a remedy for our afflictive emotions, cutting attachment to ego and phenomena. We awake from ignorance to recognize our own true nature; Dharmakaya.

The practice of Troma leads to the understanding of the nature of emptiness that pervades all beings and phenomena. This understanding results in accomplishing the two accumulations of merit and wisdom. Thus, the practice of Troma is a path capable of rendering full realization of enlightenment.

Gestures and Attributes

Troma Nagmo's facial expression is ferocious and terrifying, with three round and angry red eyes that gaze piercingly towards the left, and a large gaping mouth that reveals her sharp teeth and fangs, and her twisting red tongue. Her nose is wrinkled as she frowns, and her red facial hair blazes upward like tongues of fire. The tawny-yellow locks of her matted hair swirl upwards like thunderclouds above her five-skull tiara, and from the crown of her head protrudes the wrathful black or brown head of a squealing so that gazes up into the sky towards her right. Troma Nagmo's face represents her single potential and the relative truth, while the sow's face represents her perception of emptiness as 'absolute truth'. Her black colour indicates her unchangeable nature, and her two heads the transformation of ignorance (sow's head) into wisdom or pristine awareness (Dakini's head). Her three eyes perceive the three worlds and times; her four sharp canine teeth liberate the four maras or demonic obstructions; her twisting red tongue indicates that she leads beings from cyclic existence; her blazing facial hair indicates her triumph over hopes and fears, and her two legs represent the purity of samsara and nirvana.

  
As upper garments Troma Nagmo wears the freshly flayed and bloody skins of an elephant and a human, while around her waist she wears a tiger-skin skirt that has been loosened to reveal her pubic area. The arms of the human-skin are draped around her shoulders like a shawl, with its head at her right side and its legs billowing out near her thighs. Similarly, the white elephant-skin is stretched behind her back like a cloak, with its right legs draped over her shoulders, its head at her right side, its rump and tail at her left, with its left legs billowing out below. These three skins represent her triumph over ignorance (elephant-skin), desire (human-skin), and aggression (tiger-skin). She wears a golden tiara adorned with five jewel-topped dry white skulls, golden earrings, necklaces, bracelets, armlets and anklets; and the filigree bone ornaments of bracelets, armlets and anklets, little bone loops that hang from her crown, a bone belt, and an elaborate bone apron with sixty-four hanging loops. A long writhing green-black serpent encircles her chest as a sacred-thread, and around her neck she wears a garland of fifty blood-dripping heads that are strung together on a thread of human intestines. These fifty freshly severed heads represent the purification of speech as the mantra-rosary of the fifty Sanskrit vowels and consonants.

  
With her right hand she wields aloft the Vajra-handled curved knife of the Dakinis, which she circles towards the ten directions to terrify all maras or obstructive demons. This sharp knife severs the dualistic distinction between subject and object, and represents her ability to sever the three poisons of ignorance, attachment, and aversion. With her left hand she holds a skull-cup full of blood in front of her heart, with strands of hair hanging from the base of the skull. The blood swirls in an anticlockwise direction to indicate her performance of the left-hand practices of the mother-tantra' traditions. While the blood-filled skull-cup symbolizes the cultivation of great bliss, and her ability to consume the blood of misperception. Resting in the crook of her left arm is the long white eight-sided shaft of her tantric staff or Khatvanga, which represents the essence of Heruka, and her ability to perform all kinds of method activities or skillful means. The top of her Khatvanga is adorned with the symbolic attributes of a golden Crossed-Vajra (Skt. Vishvavajra); a golden nectar vase; a billowing white silk ribbon; a fresh red head; a decaying green head; a dry white skull, and the crowning symbol of a blazing iron trident. A blazing mass of awareness fire emanates from her body, and behind these orange-red flames appear the radiating golden light rays of her aura.

About this Sculpture

This exquisite sculpture is a profoundly wrathful representation of Troma Nagmo Jogini, expertly cast from copper alloy using the lost wax method and gilded with 24-karat gold. The hand-painted face adds a touch of warmth and compassion to the overall design. Each piece is individually handcrafted in Patan, Nepal by master artisans of the Shakya clan, who are renowned for their exceptional skill and dedication to preserving traditional techniques passed down through generations.

The Shakya clan is the modern heir to a centuries-old tradition of creating sacred art for use in temples and monasteries. Their fine metalworking techniques have been meticulously passed down from generation to generation since ancient times, ensuring that each piece is a masterpiece that embodies both artistic excellence and profound spiritual significance.

The lost wax method, a traditional technique used in Nepal since the 10th century, allows for the capture of intricate details and features, from the deity's facial expression to the ornate adornments that adorn her form. The subsequent gilding with 24-karat gold, achieved through the traditional fire gilding technique, lends the sculpture a luminous quality that enhances its visual splendor and evokes the enlightened spiritual presence of the Buddha.

This sculpture is a testament to the enduring skill and tradition of the Shakya clan, who continue to create masterpieces that inspire and guide practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.