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Seated Buddha
Bronze
Northern Thailand
Circa 17th c CE
Height: 62cm (21"1/2)
Width: 38cm (15")
Perfect condition
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Born in India during the 6th century BCE, Buddhism is a reform of the Hinduism which spread even during the very lifetime of the Buddha, in India, then in all Asia. Prince Gautama, also known as Siddhartha, is said to have left his princely life in a small kingdom of Northern India, when he discovered that suffering and death were the destiny of all human beings. He became an ascetic, traveled and studied with Hindu saddhus during about twenty years, and ultimately got the Enlightenment when meditating under the Pipal Tree. His theories were clear, simple and free from the heavy ritualism of Hinduism. Soon, the Sangha, a large community of monks and lay people bloomed around him and diffused and propagated his teaching first in India, where it became state-religion for a while, and then in all Asia.
Buddhism arrived in South East Asia and Thailand around the 5th/6th century CE, overlapped the Hindu substrate of the different kingdoms of Champa in Viet-Nam, Funan, then Khmer in Cambodia and Dvaravati in actual Thailand. The early sculptures of the Buddha remained very similar to Gupta and post-Gupta style of they Indian patterns. Nevertheless, soon appeared local styles, integrating the Indian Heritage and creating unseen and refreshed shapes for the images of the Enlightened.
This seated Buddha is coming from Chiang May in Northern Thailand and is depicted in Virasana, (his legs are crossed, with the right leg on the top) and doing the Maravijaya mudra (touching the earth when refusing the world of illusion). The supple yet firm design of his body, his oval face with round eyebrows and downcast eyes is enlightened with a subtle and peaceful smile. His curly hair his topped with a detachable ushnisha, which design a flame on the top of his head
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