Cleveland Museum of Art
Bodhisattva Maitreya: The Future Buddha
- Date
- 1100s
- Medium
- silver inlaid with turquoise, copper, brass and gold; gilt bronze lotus
- Culture
- East India, Bengal, Pala period, 12th century
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 150999
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Dressed as a prince like all bodhisattvas, Maitreya is identifiable by the pot of nectar of immortality above his left shoulder. According to Buddhists, Maitreya will be reborn in the distant future to renew and reestablish the religion of Buddhism on earth, like the historical Buddha Shakyamuni did in the 400s BC. The blue paint on his hair indicates that this sculpture was used in Tibet. It was probably brought to Tibet, likely during the 1100s to 1200s when Buddhists relocated en masse from politically unstable northeastern India to Nepal and Tibet, where Buddhism was expanding and Indian masters, texts, and art were in high demand.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Provenance
- The Pan-Asian Collection, New York, NY | ?–1982: (Robert H. Ellsworth [1929–2014], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1982–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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