Shiva Linga

Southern Thailand

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 245

Shiva can be worshipped in innumerable forms, both natural and man-made. These forms can range from small river-washed stones (banalinga) to mountaintops that are deemed to display a linga-like profile (lingaparvata). In Southeast Asia, a distinctive conical linga with square shaft, unlike any Indian forms, appears from about the sixth century onward. The greatest concentration of examples of this type is found in peninsular Thailand, though their distribution is far wider, extending east to Borneo and Bali.

cat. no. 81

Shiva Linga, Sandstone, Southern Thailand

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