Dancing Hevajra (<em>Ardhaparyanka</em>)
Angkor period, 12th‒13th century or later
- Medium
- Bronze
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 14.4 × 6.5 × 4.6 cm (5 5/8 × 2 1/2 × 1 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Southeast Asia
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Avery Brundage, Samuel Nickerson, and Margrette Dornbusch funds
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This small bronze depicts Hevajra, a wrathful tantric form of the Buddha Akshobhya, central to Vajrayana Buddhism. With eight heads, sixteen arms holding skull cups, and a dynamic dance pose trampling ignorance, Hevajra appears alone—unlike Himalayan depictions that include his consort. This Khmer-style image, likely used in ritual, reflects royal tantric practices promoted at Angkor in the late 12th and 13th centuries. Hevajra images found at Buddhist sites in Cambodia and northeast Thailand suggest a broader regional diffusion of this esoteric tradition.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
