Buddha Shakyamuni – The Historical Buddha
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Chapel
Orientation 2
Display 3

ABS 078

 Code: ABS 078

  Country: Tibet

  Style: Late Pala Style

  Date: 1150 - 1250

  Dimensions in cm WxHxD: 11 x 13.5 x 6.5

  Materials: Brass

Buddha Shakyamuni – The Historical Buddha

The Buddha is seated legs crossed in meditation on a double lotus pedestal, his transparent religious garment leaving his right shoulder uncovered. With his right extended hand, he touches the ground before him while his left rests on his lap in contemplation. This posture refers to the episode of his victory over Mara, god of Death and illusion when, by touching the ground he took the Earth as a witness of his spiritual realisation.

The Buddha is endowed with all the distinctive marks and signs of a “Great being:” short curly hair, a cranial protuberance (ushnisha), a curl of hair between the eyebrows (urna), elongated earlobes, and three marks on the throat, and so on.

This image shows strong stylistic affinities with works produced in North-Eastern India in the Later Pala Period during the 11th and 12th centuries. A small vajra is placed before the Buddha, evocation of the “Vara Seat” (Vajrasana) in Bodhgaya, Northern India, the place where he reached Enlightenment.