
Dora Tan
Head of Sale, Specialist
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Sold for HK$57,375 inc. premium
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Head of Sale, Specialist

International Director
西藏 約十四世紀 彌勒菩薩銅像
Maitreya is worshiped as both a bodhisattva of the present, and the Buddha of the Future. According to the Buddhist worldview, he is to succeed Shakyamuni (the present Buddha) during an era of chaos and moral decline to reintroduce Buddhist teachings to humankind.
Maitreya is often depicted holding both of his hands in front of his chest in the gesture of furthering the Dharma, but here he is holding a kundika while raising his right hand in the gesture of reassurance. While rare, this iconography is shared by other painted and sculptural examples (see HAR 19751 & 12911).
Compare the distinct lotus petals, each with a large flat outer petal paired with a narrow plump inner petal, to a contemporaneous bronze Buddha published in von Schroeder, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Vol.II, Hong Kong, 2003, pp.962-3, no.231D.