Page 43 - Christies Alsdorf Collection Part 1 Sept 24 2020 NYC

The Mon polity of Dvaravati was one of the earliest and most important societies in 孟族陀羅缽地位處現今泰國中部，屬東南亞早期最為昌盛的
mainland Southeast Asia. Based around the Chao Phraya and Mae Klang river basins of 古國之一，坐落昭拍耶河與美功河谷一帶，據當地歷史記
central Thailand, the Dvaravati polity was known from early Chinese textual sources, as 載，大概活躍於公元550至650年代，在中國古藉亦有所描
well as being mentioned in a single local inscription that dates to roughly AD 550-650. 述。陀羅鉢地盛產佛像，疑基於帝皇篤信佛教，造像文化蔚
Due to the large numbers of Buddhist sculptures associated with the culture, it is highly 然成風，發展極盛。由於佛教循印度傳入，陀羅鉢地造像亦
likely the rulers were patrons of the Buddhist faith. The images of Buddha were heavily 深受古印度雕塑影響，尤其衍化自笈多時期的鹿野苑風格。
influenced by contemporaneous Indian sculptural styles, including the Gupta style based
然而，陀羅鉢地造像面相頗富地方特色，眼眉細長，呈弓狀
around the site of Sarnath. The facial features of the Mon Dvaravati Buddhist images,
甚至雙連，異於印度風格。此尊佛像比例工整勻稱，通身袈
however, display arched, joined eyebrows which are unlike those found in India,
裟薄如蟬翼，軀體輪廓若隱若現，造型素淨簡約，形態栩栩
and which are characteristic to the Mon Dvaravati style. The figure is symmetrically
如生。此袈裟布局與當時鹿野苑風格一脈相承。
arranged, with the monastic robes closely clinging to the body, thereby displaying
sensitive modeling of the torso and focusing on the purity and fluidity of form. Such
佛像兩手同施安慰印，乃佛對眾生的祝願，源起於孟族陀羅
diaphanous drapery is a hallmark of the contemporaneous Sarnath style of Buddhism.
鉢地，僅在東南亞地區流傳。手印以拇指與食指相捻，象
The standing figure of the Buddha with both hands raised in the gesture of vitarkamudra 徵圓滿成就，生生不息，據說此印與佛在忉利天向母親説
- the gesture of elucidation or argumentation - is another iconographic feature 法相關，見John Guy著《Lost Kingdoms: Hindu—Buddhist
developed by the Mon Dvaravati culture, and which is mostly confined to mainland Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia》，康州紐黑文，2014年，
Southeast Asia. The thumb and forefinger, joined at the tips, form circles representing 頁 210。
both perfection and eternity. John Guy, in Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of
Early Southeast Asia, New Haven, 2014, p. 210, posits that this gesture may have been
intended to evoke sutra descriptions of the Buddha’s descent from the Trayastrimsa
Heaven, where he had preached to his late mother.

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