Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Enthroned Buddha Preaching
Not on view
This diminutive Buddha appears to be engaged in animated exposition, and his raised right hand (now damaged) may have indicated the teaching gesture (vitarkamudra). A significant number of terracottas were recovered during the excavation of site 40 at Khu Bua in 1962. The Buddha’s seated posture (bhadrasana) has its origins in the rock-cut cave depictions of western India and was disseminated to China and Southeast Asia, where it is associated with auspiciousness and material wealth. Its widespread appearance in Southeast Asia points to the circulation of portable Indian models, most likely transported by Buddhist missionary monks.
cat. no. 110
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