A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A SEATED BUDDHA, Tibet, 18th century

Finely cast, it depicts the Buddha Shakyamuni, seated in padmasana on a double lotus-flower base while his hands are in darmachakramudra; the Buddha's attributes (lakshana) are strongly pronounced: the cranial protuberance (ushnisha), symbol of Siddhartha's enlightenment, rendered as a bun above his coiled hair, and the earlobes elongated by the heavy jewellery worn in his previous royal life, symbolising the renunciation of glories.

鎏金铜佛像，西藏，十八世纪