Standing Buddha

1100s

Medium
gold repoussé
Classification
Metalwork
Dimensions
Overall: 13.8 x 5.7 cm (5 7/16 x 2 1/4 in.)
Culture
Southern Myanmar (Burma), Pegu, or northwestern Thailand
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line
Gift of Maxine and Morris Stone
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 Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

Along with manuscripts, small-scale images of the Buddha could be commissioned by pilgrims or devotees and offered to a monastery in connection with a vow or the consecration of a sacred monument or object.

The Buddha stands on a lotus flower that indicates his transcendence above ordinary beings. He is surrounded by flames that communicate his radiance and the intensity of the heat or power he acquired through meditation and discipline. His hands are in the mudra communicating the transmission of the teachings.