Citipati skull bone carving

Beautiful pieces of traditional Himalayan craftmanship; these Citipati skull figurines have been completely handcarved by an artisan bonecarver in Kathmandu. 

The legend of the Citipati speaks about two austere monks who were once meditating on a charnel ground. In their deep state of meditation, they didn’t notice a group of robbers approaching them. Looking for expensive items (which the monks of course did not have), the robbers killed them and left their bodies on the charnel grounds.

Because of their great spiritual development, the spirits from the monks were freed from the wheel of samsara. They decided to stay on the charnel grounds and eventually changed into the Citipati, the Lords of the Cemetery. They are seen as guardians and protectors of the graveyards, crematoriums and charnel grounds, ensuring the peace for the deceased and keeping the area’s hallowed places for spiritual and meditative practices.

The Citipati are an intricate part of the iconography of (especially) Vajrayana Buddhism. Often they are depicted as a pair of dancing skeletons (one male, one female), dancing wildly in a halo of flames which symbolizes the transformational power of fire and the constantly shifting character of reality. Their dance represents the dance of life and death, the dynamic interaction between creation and destruction and the  everlasting flow of life. And the happiness that comes from the ultimate liberation of breaking free from the cycle of reincarnation.

The Citipati are thus looked upon in a two-fold (but connected) way; on the one hand they are invoked as wrathful deities, for their fierce protective qualities. On the other hand, the symbol of the Citipati serves as a reminder of the transience of existence, the value of distancing oneself from the physical world, and the potential for enlightenment. It teaches that absolute freedom is gained by accepting the impermanence of life, seeing the cyclic nature of it and overcoming the worries that keep us trapped in samsaric existence.

There are two carvings available. On first glance they might look very similar, but if you look more closely you see that they vary in their details and each have their own very distinct character. Details of each carving:

1, left on the overview pictures; slightly darker color. Approximately 10 centimeters high, 8,5 centimeters wide and 4 centimeters deep. Weight: 85 grams. Please note: this one has had some damages in the past, which have been restored with special bone-glue. It is now in good, stable condition again, but the restoration work can still be seen. Therefore the price for this one is a bit lower.

#2, right on the overview pictures; slightly lighter color. Approximately 11 centimeters high, 9 centimeters wide and 4 centimeters deep. Weight: 89 grams. In good condition.

Please know; the art of real, artisan bonecarving by hand is a dying craft in Himalayan area's, because of, among other reasons, unfair competition from machine-made, a dime-a-dozen, mass production in other Asian regions. Therefore real pieces such as these ones are getting increasingly more rare and expensive.