Antique Early XX Century Tibetan Gilt Bronze Figurine With Stand Representing Yab Yum Vajrabhairava, Meditational Deity Of Tantric Buddhism. Cast Metal Bronze With Gilt Figure On Stand. Mahayana Buddhism From Tibet And Nepal. Yab-yum (Tibetan: ཡབ་ཡུམ། literally, "father-mother") is a common symbol in the Tibetan Buddhist art of India, Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet. It represents the primordial union of wisdom and compassion, depicted as a male deity in union with his female consort through the similar ideas of interpenetration or "coalescence" (Wylie: zung-jug; Sanskrit: yuganaddha), using the concept of Indra's net to illustrate this. The male figure represents compassion and skillful means, while the female partner represents insight. In yab-yum the female is seated on the male's lap. There is a rare presentation of a similar figure but reversed, with the male sitting on the female's lap, called yum-yab.