Metal Sculpture (Repousse)
Most of the Tibetan statues represents god and goddesses of Hinduism and Buddhism, some of the commonly seen statue are Amitabha, the Buddha of unending light, lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god of wisdom and learning, Buddha and lord Shiva. Some of the other known statues are Manjushri Mulakalpa, Samvarodaya, Krishna Yamari, and Kalachakra tantras. There is a huge demand of these idols in the market, most of the western tourist prefer Tara in sitting position or Buddha in standing. Top quality elaborate and sophisticated are hard to find, due to which the prices of these statues ranges in lakhs. Because of the hand – work involved in metal work, it is very much time consuming and does not allow large amount of production. Idols size varies from 6 inches to 23feet and 18 inch tall idol is more popular in the market. Idols below 4 inches are made using molding (lost wax casting) process, because it consumes lot of time for sculpting small size idol.
