Collar necklace with figure of Shiva-Bhairava

In the Tantric Buddhism of Nepal, Shiva appears as Bhairava, a violent and demonic guise of the god, full of passionate energy and bearing symbols of death such as skulls. This form of Shiva indicates his relationship with the older god Rudra, the Aryan storm deity. The piece has an inscription that dates it to the 17th century. This inscription mentions several Buddhist donors of the necklace who lived in the vicinity of Katmandu. Indian and Himalayan scripts go back to the Near Eastern and Greek alphabets, introduced through trade from at least 300 B.C. onward.