Statue of Buddha at Birth
Not on view
This figurine represents the newborn Shaka. Immediately after his birth he took seven steps and looked to the four corners of the earth. Then, raising two fingers of his right hand toward heaven and his left hand toward earth, he pronounced "I alone am Prince of that above and below the heavens." A newborn-Buddha statuette is bathed at the annual ceremony celebrating the birth of Buddha on the eight day of April.