
Dora Tan
Head of Sale, Specialist
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Sold for HK$216,750 inc. premium
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Head of Sale, Specialist

International Director

International Specialist

Cataloguer
室利佛逝 泰國南部 八/九世紀 觀音銅像
This rare bronze of Avalokiteshvara is presented with a hieratic slender in the mature style of the powerful Kingdom of Shrivijaya, which spanned from Indonesia over Malaysia to Southern Thailand. The presence of Amitabha Buddha set within his finely detailed jatamukuta identifies this figure as the bodhisattva of compassion.
Another four-armed Avalokiteshvara shares similarity in hairstyle and facial expression, and was originally found in a riverbed at Palembang, Sumatra, in 1930, though is now in the Museum National, Jakarta (see Konigreiche, Indonesiens, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim, 1995, no. 9.
For another example of an Avalokiteshvara image, see Diskul, The Art of Shrivijaya, 1980, pl. 25. Also see Van Beek, The Arts of Thailand, 1985, p. 24. Compare with an earlier two-armed Maitreya in Chutiwongs & Leidy, Buddha of the Future, Singapore, 1994, p. 81, no. 47. Also compare with a mid-10th century Lokanatha and Siva Mahadeva dated in the Songkhla National Museum published in Krairiksh, The Roots of Thai Art, 2012, pp. 177 & 248. Also compare with a related figure sold at Bonhams, New York, 17 September 2014, lot 172.