Buddha-to-be Sakyamuni Triumphing Over Mara

This bronze from 16th-century Thailand recalls much earlier statues of the Pala period (8th–12th centuries) originating in eastern India and present-day Bangladesh, where the historic Buddha lived. The Buddha-to-be Shakyamuni (also called Siddhartha Gautama) sits with his legs folded in the lotus position, with his right hand in the earth-touching gesture dispelling Mara (the personification of evil through worldly desire) while his left hand rests palm upward in his lap. This pose symbolizes the moment of the Buddha’s enlightenment while seated in meditation under a banyan fig tree. Most likely derived from the central image of the main Buddhist shrine at Bodh Gaya (in Bangladesh)—where the event occurred—this Thai sculpture is generations removed from its Pala model. Nonetheless, the original metamorphic language of Indian texts describing the appearance of the Buddha persists: nose like a parrot’s beak, shoulders like the trunk of an elephant, hands opened like a lotus.