SITTING BURMESE BUDDHA

GILT;.DRY LACQUER

MANDALAY STYLE (KONBAUNG DYNASTY)

MID TO LATE 19^TH CENTURY

69.8 cm./27.5” high

DESCRIPTION: A Burmese Figure of Buddha Shakyamuni:A large figure of Buddha, seated in dhyanasana on a molded red and black high, waisted throne, his hands in bhumisarsa and dhyana mudra, and wearing royal robes and a crown.

This figure in this illustration represents what is possibly, the most characteristic form of Burmese Religious sculpture. The posture in which Buddha is seated is usually known as the 'earth witness' attitude. This represents the moment when Buddha was seated in meditation under the Bodhi tree during the night before he achieved enlightenment. When he was asked by Mara to name anyone who would give evidence that he had given alms, the Buddha moved his right hand and touched the earth and said that the earth would bear witness that in a previous existence in the form of Vessantara , he had given alms to such an extent as to cause the earth to quake. Immediately before this incident his right hand was folded in his lap in precisely the same way as his left; here he has moved it to touch the earth in front of him in the gesture of calling the earth to witness (bhumisarsa mudra)

Dry lacquer is a technique which was probably imported from China; dry lacquer figures are usually hollow; they are built up with cloth soaked in lacquer on a wooden frame work, or clay core, which is subsequently removed. Alternatively, the cloth is pressed into a lacquer mould which has been made of a figure carved out of wood. In both cases the details are added after the main form has been made, and the surface polished and gilded