Item ref: 2863
Private collection, Belgium
These stirrups are closely comparable to a pair in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (no. 1997.214.2, LaRocca 2006, 245, no. 130), which were acquired with a saddle said to have been used by the young Gyalwa Tenzin Gyatso in the 1930s, ceremonies following his identification as the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The present stirrups are slightly more ornate than the New York examples, with unusual additional dragons at the foot of each post, and have heavier, D-section posts. The use of silver overlay on a cross-hatched ground, generally known by the Indian term koftgari, is described in Tashi Namgyal’s Teatise on Worldly Traditions as characteristic of Tibetan and Chinese stirrups, while he records that Mongol stirrups were decorated with true inlay (LaRocca 2006, 214–5). The square earrings of the precious minister motif form one of the Seven Jewel Insignia of the Chakravartin of Tibetan Buddhism.
The tread (mthil) of each stirrup is in the form of a rounded rectangular platform decorated in silver koftgari with a guilloche border and a design of interlocking square earrings of the precious minister at the centre. The posts (rkang) are of D-section, with small carved and gilded dragons’ heads at the foot of each and terminate in carved dragons with open mouths at either side of a central block at the top of the arch pierced with a rectangular slot for the stirrup leather (lung) and short, flat-topped posts at either side at the top. The central block and posts are silvered, the dragons’ heads gilded overall. The underside of the tread is plain and rough from the hammer.