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Gilded bronze figure of Tara
Found between Trincomalee and Batticaloa, Sri
Lanka
8th century AD
This image is of the popular Buddhist goddess, Tara, the consort
of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.
Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka in the third century BC and has a
continuous history on the island to this day. Sri Lanka is today a
Theravada Buddhist country, like Burma and Thailand. However, this,
and other bodhisattva images are evidence for the presence
of Mahayana Buddhism alongside Theravada in Sri Lanka in the
medieval period.
This image is one of the finest examples of figural
bronze-casting in Asia. It is solid cast in one piece and gilded.
The eyes and the elaborately arranged hair were doubtless inlaid
with precious stones. A small niche in the headdress would have
contained a small seated image of the Buddha. The goddess is naked
to the waist with a lower garment flowing to her ankles. Tara's
right hand is shown in the position of varadamudra, the
gesture of giving; her left hand is empty but may have held a lotus
flower. This image was for a long time identified as the local
goddess Pattini, whose cult is popular in Sri Lanka.
W. Zwalf (ed.), Buddhism: art and faith (London, The British Museum Press, 1985)
R.E. Fisher, Buddhist art and architecture (London, Thames & Hudson, 1993)