Dharmapala Thangka CentreTibetan Antiques

This Tsa Tsa Mold inset and wired in a wooden block with hammered head is 13 cm high.

The large, massive Tsa Tsa mold impresses with its mass and workmanship. You can see from the wooden head that the stamp was in use for many years and many Tsa Tsas were made with it. Thousands of hammer blows have knocked the head end wide.

The brass mold was worked into a large block of wood and hardwired into it.

Today it is extremely rare to find examples with wooden handles at auctions or on the internet. For some years now, comparable stamps have been found almost exclusively in museum holdings and in the collections of private enthusiasts of Tibetan Asian artefacts. Museums generally do not sell anything from their collections. When they do come up for sale, it is almost always due to the liquidation of estates.

Through years of use of the mold, the sharpness of the surface has suffered somewhat. One can no longer say with certainty which deity is depicted. It is certain that it is a multi-armed representation. Probably it is a four-armed Bodhisatva Avalokitesvara representation, but this is not certain.

The age is probably in the 18^th or 19^th century.

Comparison with a very similar mold of Bonhams Auction House.