Lokapāla Virūḍhaka

The great value of this statue is seen in its aesthetic qualities rather than in its decorative effect: the powerful and expressive face, the modelling of the body, the articulation of the hands, the treatment of the hair, and the plastic quality of the crown. Although typical of the iconography of China and Central Asia, the sculpture reveals important stylistic features that were imported for centuries to Tibet by those Newar artists of the Kathmandu Valley whose contribution was fundamental to the creation of Tibetan national art.