Auction introduction: This September, Sotheby’s will present Dharma and Tantra, a carefully curated auction of 41 sculptures, paintings and ritual works of art that encapsulate the development and diffusion of Buddhist art in Asia. The journey originates in the ancient region of Gandhara, progressing through Pala India, Kashmir, Nepal and Tibet, traversing the Silk Road from the Tang empire to the Silla kingdom, and finally culminating in the Imperial palaces of Ming and Qing dynasty China. Highlights of the sale are a truly exceptional and large silver-inlaid copper alloy figure of Avalokiteshvara, commissioned by a master craftsman in Kashmir for a temple in Western Tibet in the 11th century, and an important early mandala of Vajravarahi with Taklung Kagyü Lineage from the late 12th / early 13th century, formerly in the Fournier collection.