Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Buddha Preaching
Not on view
This Buddha, standing in a symmetrical posture with a long robe and both hands raised in the teaching gesture (vitarkamudra), is a classic form of late Dvaravati art. The double hand gesture, rarely seen in Indian art, is a hallmark of Dvaravati images and may have been meant to evoke the textual description of the Buddha’s descent from the Trayastrimsa heaven, which he had visited to preach to his late mother. This Buddha was excavated from a stupa foundation relic chamber at the ancient city of U Thong, underscoring the efficacious nature of such images.
cat. no. 119
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