Tuokuzisalai Hall B: Head of a Bodhisattva

CHINA, Xinjiang, Kashgar

This head is an excellent example of the standardization in sculptures found at the Tuokuzisalai site. A damaged example in the Guimet Museum, also from the 1906 to 1909 Pelliot expedition, is the same in all details.
Sharply defined eyebrows run downward to form the lines of the nose. The bowed line of the upper lip beneath the delicately formed nose is longer and thinner than the lower lip. The raised waves of the hair sweeping down on the sides of the face are decorative and striking. The long ears have been imposed over the hair elements and, from the side contribute to the overall design. The hair is braided through a ring and wrapped with cloth into a striking topknot decorated with flowers at the side and fronted with a princely emblem of the sort often found on similar figures from Gandhara.