Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Yaksha
Not on view
This sculpture marks the first phase of Indic sculptural production in central Vietnam. Stylistic hallmarks—robust figure, fleshiness of the face, wig-like hair, and elliptical earplugs—point to the artist’s familiarity with imagery of Gupta India (ca. 320–550). Models for such transmission remain unknown. The figure is a yaksha, a nature-spirit deity presided over in the Indian world by Kubera, guardian of the wealth of the earth and seas. The relief was excavated at the citadel of the urban center of Tra Kieu, an early Cham polity on the Thu Bon River upstream from Hoi An.
cat. no. 15
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