Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Bodhisattva Maitreya
Not on view
The most important cache of Buddhist bronze images ever discovered in Southeast Asia was accidentally found in 1964 in a stone-covered burial pit in the grounds of Prasat Hin Khao Plai Bat II, a tenth-century Khmer brick temple in Buriram Province. The reason for their careful concealment within the temple compound was likely the rededication of the temple for Brahmanical use. The patinas of some of the bronzes show traces of having been wrapped in cloth. The cache, at the time dubbed the “Prakhon Chai Hoard,” consisted of fifty-three known images and undoubtedly many more that were not recorded.
cat. no. 139
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