A GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF MAITREYA


TIBET, CIRCA 14TH CENTURYHimalayan Art Resources item no.61651 12 cm (4 3/4 in.) high
|西藏 約十四世紀 銅鎏金彌勒像With Shakyamuni as the penultimate, Maitreya is the last and future buddha of this age. He is a supreme bodhisattva, ready to take on Buddhahood when the time is right to usher in the final enlightened salvation of all beings.In the meantime, Maitreya preaches in Tushita Heaven, where practitioners aspire to be reborn so as to benefit from the accelerated enlightenment its circumstance provides. This bronze depicts Maitreya's role in Tushita Heaven by seating him in a posture of a teacher before an audience and with his hands in the gesture of progressing the Dharma. Compare with a similar example of seated Maitreya sold at Spink, The Mirror of the Mind: Art of Vajrayana Buddhism, London, 1995, p.32.ProvenanceAlbert Clayton, LondonJenny Gilbert, London, 2015