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Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara

first quarter of the 8th century
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
This two-armed Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is one of the grandest images to survive from the early eighth century. His two-armed form suggests he is Padmapani, the lotus bearer. The distinctive aesthetic situates this sculpture within a major corpus of bronze Buddhist images from northeastern Thailand (see cat. nos. 139–42). He has a broad, sensitively modeled face with downcast eyes and a demeanor of calm contemplation. His slender mustache and full lips are contoured with a defining double line. When complete, he could be expected to have carried a gilded-bronze lotus in his left hand and offered boons to devotees with his right.

cat. no. 138

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
  • Date: first quarter of the 8th century
  • Culture: Northeastern Thailand
  • Medium: Sandstone
  • Dimensions: H. 69 11/16 in. (177 cm); W. 11 13/16 in. (30 cm); D. 7 7/8 in. (20 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Lent by Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1965 (WI1965-1-1)
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art