Crowned Buddha

Thailand (Lopburi)

Not on view

This crowned Buddha image was cast in Lopburi, the Khmer provincial capital located in central (modern day) Thailand in the early centuries of the second millennium. It reflects a new vogue in Buddhism for the crowned and bejeweled Buddha, adornment normally reserved for Buddhist saviors—bodhisattvas—not Buddhas. This reflected a new envisioning of the Buddha that drew on very early notions of the Buddha as a spiritual sovereign, a chakravartin. Eastern Indian models of the Pala period, which are known to have circulated, served as models for Lopburi artists to produce their very Khmer-style versions of this new Buddha-type.

Crowned Buddha, Copper alloy, Thailand (Lopburi)

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