Old iron mirror from Nepal, with some brass decorative accents. In Nepal, mirrors such as these are called 'melong'. They are traditionally often worn on the belt, instead of around the neck. This melong has been handmade and is an exceptional piece of traditional artisan craftmanship.
Size; 65 millimeters diameter (measured without the eyelet) and 41 grams.
Design characteristics:
This unique melong shows the depiction of the buddhist bull-headed deity Yamantaka, the most wrathful manifestation of Manjushri. He embodies a wrath so powerful that it can be a danger even to himself if not controlled properly. The name 'yamantaka' consists of 'Yama' and 'antaka' and can roughly be translated as 'Destroyer of the Lord of Death'; by defeating Yama (the Lord of Death) the endless cycle of samsara can be broken. In Vajrayana Buddhism, Yamantaka is often equated with the meditational deity Vajrabhairava, but in his bull-headed depiction as Yamantaka he can be dated back to the earlier school of Nyingma or even the pre-buddhist Bon spirituality of Tibet. In the different schools, the role of Yamantaka may vary a bit, from a very strong protector (especially a 'dharmapala'; protector of the buddhist dharma) to a wrathful destroyer with an almost uncontrollable rage.
Read more about the origin, design and usage of (shamanic) mirrors in the general description of our webshop collection "Mirrors and Melongs".
