A five-pointed spear

A five-pointed spear

Tibet, 17th-18th century29 1/8 in. (74 cm.) long

Provenance: Jean Claude Moreau-Gobard. The Andrault Collection.

The stylized prongs of this five-pointed spear blaze with fan-shaped, gilded scrolling flames, and a gilded skull is set in its base. As a weapon in the hands of wrathful deities, the trident symbolizes, among other things, the destruction of the three poisons that drive suffering in samsara: ignorance, greed, and hatred. Trident banners are often used to decorate the roofs of protector chapels dedicated to such wrathful deities.

The present spear with its five points, though symbolically synonymous with the trident, trisula, or mdung-rtse-gsum, most closely resembles that accompanying an image of the state oracle of Tibet known as Nechung Chokyong (Tib. gnas chung chos skyong) or ‘Religious Protector of a Small Dwelling [a monastery]’ in the great collection of the Potala Palace in Lhasa (see figure 1).

This Nechung Chokyong incarnation lineage has held great sway over the Ganden Phodrang since the seventeenth century and the ritual investiture of this figure--who has the power to transcend his human body and embody a protective retinue figure of Pehar Gyalpo installed as an important protector by the Fifth Dalai Lama and his minister– includes the present five-pointed spear.

The present ritual object is certainly rare. However, a nearly identical trident resides within the Musee Guimet in Paris (accession no. M15918).

Comparable Works: