Laos, 18th-19th century, Maravijaya Buddha in bronze with green patina

Laos
XVIIIth-XIXth century

The Buddha is depicted seated on a high stepped pedestal in the sattvaparyanka position. The right leg resting on the left leg and the hands in bumisparsha mudra, the right hand resting on the knee, the fingers pointing to the ground and the left hand placed in his lap, palm facing the sky.
The body has broad shoulders and a chest filled with the breath of meditation. The arms have delicate hands with long tapered fingers. The Buddha is dressed in samgathi, the monastic habit, leaving the right shoulder uncovered, with a piece of cloth placed on the left shoulder and falling straight down to the navel.
The face, with its great interiority, is classic of Lao statuary: eyes with half-closed eyelids surmounted by perfectly rounded eyebrows, a long aquiline nose in the shape of an eagle's beak overhanging a thin-lipped mouth sketching a broad smile, the neck showing the folds of beauty. The skull is covered with a multitude of small spikes and surmounted at the top by the usnisa (cranial protuberance) from which springs a high rasmi. The pointed ears with long distended lobes curved towards the outside, the auricle in the shape of a snail shell.

The representation of our Buddha is part of the classical images of the Buddhist statuary canons and refers to a particular episode in the life of the Awakened One. The latter being close to attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Mara, the god of unfulfilled desires, tries to distract the Blessed One and claims the throne of enlightenment for himself. Faced with the repeated assaults of Mara, the Buddha remains impassive and by this symbolic gesture, takes the Earth as witness of his will to reach complete Enlightenment.

Bronze
Marks of use
15.3 x 30 cm

Ref: 6DS6K10AWD