figure
- Museum number
- 1969,0211.1
- Description
-
Figure of a crowned Buddha: seated and crowned; with openwork appendages developed from the ribbon-ends of the crown; wearing a necklace, armlets; holding a bowl in the left hand the myrobalan with medicinal properties in the right; a bulbous finial above the head broken. Made of bronze.
- Production date
- 1600-1799 (About)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 53 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Zwalf 1985
Burmese Buddha images continued the crowned type derived from eastern India's influence at Pagan. Here great openwork appendages have developed from the ribbon-ends of the crown. Above the head was a bulbous finial, now broken. In addition to the necklaces and armlets of the crowned type this Buddha has a bowl and, in the right hand, the myrobalan which has medicinal properties. The Buddha as healer is an old and widespread concept; the 'historical' Buddha is also recorded as having received a myrobalan from the god Indra after the Enlightenment. This crowned type is called Jambupati Buddha in South-east Asia after a story, unkown from Indian sources, which tells of an ambitious king of that name whom the Buddha humbled and converted by appearing in the unmatchable splendour of a Universal Monarch.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2023-2024 2 Nov-11 Feb, London, BM, G35, Burma to Myanmar
- Acquisition date
- 1969
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1969,0211.1