This 9.25″ Usnisavijaya sculpture is partly fire gilded in 24K gold — the face, crown, upper body, and key ornamental elements in bright gold against the dark red oxidized copper of the robes and lotus throne — with a gold painted face rendered in fine detail. The Bodhisattva crown and jewels can be additionally embellished with turquoise and red coral stones at no extra charge before shipping. The statue was handcrafted in Patan, Nepal by a master Newar artisan using the traditional lost wax sculpting method, with fine hand-carved detail throughout. Learn more about Namgyalma and the three long life deities.
Usnisavijaya — Namgyalma in Tibetan, meaning “Victorious One” — is one of the three principal long life deities alongside Amitayus and White Tara. Her practice is specifically invoked to extend life, purify negative karma, and protect practitioners from the lower realms. A notable extension of her practice documented in the Tibetan tradition: her long life mantra recited over an animal — whispered into its ear — is considered capable of generating the conditions for that being’s higher rebirth. This extension of her protective function to non-human beings reflects the Mahayana aspiration to benefit all sentient life equally, without discrimination by species or capacity for formal practice.
The Newar artisan who created this statue followed the iconometric requirements of the traditional sculptural canon — the proportional standards derived from classical Tibetan and Indian Buddhist texts on the construction of sacred statues — which specify that Usnisavijaya be depicted with the facial features of a young woman of sixteen. This specification connects her to the principle found across multiple longevity and Dakini deities: that the perpetual youth of the 16-year-old form expresses not biological age but the inexhaustible, ever-renewing quality of enlightened compassionate energy, unconditioned by the fatigue and diminishment that characterize ordinary existence.
Usnisavijaya Sculpture Features
Namgyalma’s eight arms hold her complete set of attributes: double dorje and rope in the two hands at her chest; Varada mudra (gift-giving) in her third right hand; arrow and a small Amitabha Buddha statue in two further hands — her affiliation with Amitabha grounding her longevity practice in the pure land tradition, red coral in the crown paying tribute to his family. Her left hand in the lap holds the vessel of longevity (the vase of immortal nectar); another left hand holds a bow; and the upper left hand displays the Abhaya mudra of protection. A third eye of wisdom appears between her brows and an additional eye in the palm of her right hand — her all-seeing awareness perceiving suffering in every direction.
Authentic, Handmade in Nepal
Every statue and ritual item is handcrafted in Patan, Nepal, using traditional lost wax casting and comes with a certificate of authenticity issued by Nepal's Department of Archaeology, verifying its materials, technique, and origin.
