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A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA
TIBET, CIRCA 14TH CENTURY TIBET, 15TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.61651 Himalayan Art Resources item no.61635
12 cm (4 3/4 in.) high 17 cm (6 3/4 in.) high
HK$40,000 - 60,000 HK$80,000 - 120,000
西藏 約十四世紀 銅鎏金彌勒像 西藏 十五世纪 銅鎏金彌勒像
With Shakyamuni as the penultimate, Maitreya is the last and future The caster depicts Maitreya with a vessel of purity (kundika)
buddha of this age. He is a supreme bodhisattva, ready to take on blossoming from the teaching gesture he makes with his left hand.
Buddhahood when the time is right to usher in the final enlightened Standing, this gilded bronze would have likely been part of a triad
salvation of all beings. depicting Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara either side of Shakyamuni.
In the meantime, Maitreya preaches in Tushita Heaven, where Provenance
practitioners aspire to be reborn so as to benefit from the accelerated Ram Chandra, London, 2005
enlightenment its circumstance provides. This bronze depicts
Maitreya’s role in Tushita Heaven by seating him in a posture of a
teacher before an audience and with his hands in the gesture of
progressing the Dharma. Compare with a similar example of seated
Maitreya sold at Spink, The Mirror of the Mind: Art of Vajrayana
Buddhism, London, 1995, p.32.
Provenance
Albert Clayton, London
Jenny Gilbert, London, 2015
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