the goddess Prajnaparamita with four arms holding the vajra and pustaka in her upper right and left hands, and primary hands in vitarka and dhyana mudra, seated in vajraparyankasana on a lotus throne, with jewel-bearing elephants, snow lions and kinnara beneath, rampant viyala to the sides with riders clinging to their backs, a khyung gripping naga above, flanked by makara emerging from the swirling ocean, with buddhas, bodhisattvas and Tathagatas in niches to the left and right Himalayan Art Resources item no. 18449.

Galerie Koller Zürich, Auktion 87/3, 25/26 Juni 1993, tafel 1, nr. 38. 

This rare and unusual book cover depicts deities in shrines reminiscent of early Tibetan temple architecture. The reclining lions with paws extended forward, depicted in the centre of the niches to the upper far right, lower far right and lower far left of the book cover, are in the same format as lion-headed beam ends in early Tibetan temples, such as eight or ninth century examples in the Jokhang, see Michael Henss, The Cultural Monuments of Tibet, Munich, London, New York, 2014, p. 48, pls. 38-40. Compare also the architecture of the niches in an eleventh or twelfth century Tibetan Prajnaparamita book cover in the Maclean Collection, see Kathryn H. Selig Brown, Protecting Wisdom: Tibetan Book Covers from the MacLean Collection, Munich, London, New York, 2012, p. 69, cat. 10.