Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Plaque with Bodhisattva, Priest, and Buddhas
Not on view
Since ancient times, Buddhist places of worship have been festooned with colorful and lustrous decorations alongside sculptures and painted icons to elicit a sense of wonder in devotees. Gilt bronze or painted clay plaques like these were used as tiles in some of the earliest Japanese Buddhist temple sites such as Tachibanadera in the ancient capital of Asuka. Their reflective, colorful surfaces might have lent a sense of otherworldliness to these sacred spaces.
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