Our Burpha is divided, as per tradition, into three levels: pommel, handle and blade.
The wooden knob is carved with the three faces of the deity Vajrakīla, alternating with the image of Shiva's trident.
The wooden handle, has a carved image of the face of the deity, Ishtadevata, also known as Ydam.
The exceptionally metal tip on a wooden Phurbha, I believe is as tradition, of meteoric iron more specifically tektites, often having a high iron content.
Meteoric iron was highly valued throughout the Himalayas, where it was included in sophisticated polymetallic alloys, such as the ritually used Panchaloha.
In Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy, the symbol of the Phurba is very important, as a symbol, precisely to cut and block the three mental poisons (attachment, anger and ignorance) furthermore it is a powerful talisman that helps to remove external interferences and obstacles of the mind.
Holding it during meditation brings strength and determination.
These ritual daggers also had the ability to pin demons to the ground.
This ancient dagger (phurba or kīla) made of wood and metal (a rare combination), is traditionally associated with Tibetan Buddhism which in turn derives from the ancient Bon shamanic tradition.
The phurba is closely associated with the practice of the meditative deity Vajrakīlaya (Tibetan Dorje Phurba).
As a tool of exorcism, the phurba can be used to keep demons or thought forms in check (once expelled from their human hosts, for example) so that their mindstream can be re-directed and their obscurations transmuted.
With its tip these can be fixed to the ground.
The deity is embodied in the phurba as a means of destroying (in the sense of finalizing and then releasing) violence, hatred and aggression by binding them to the blade of the phurba and then transmuting them with its tip, the pommel can be employed in blessings.
It is therefore clear that the kīla is not a physical weapon, but a spiritual tool of transmutation, and should be regarded as such.
Weight 210 gr.
Comes with a hand carved wooden Bhurpa Holder measuring 14x14x14 height 5 cm weighing 125gr.
The age of the Bhurpa gate is around 1985.
The bhurpa presented here was purchased around 1990 directly from the director of the Mudit Gallery and the Mudit Collection International Gallery - Delhi - India, and comes from his private collection.
In his statement, the age is between the mid-19th century and the end of the 19th century.
