NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara

Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
Liao dynasty (907-1125), 10th-11th century
Wood with gesso and pigment

Images of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (अवलोकितेश्वर, "the Lord who looks down"), the personification of the Buddhist virtue of compassion, were extremely popular in China rom the tenth to fourteenth century. Figures seated in relaxed poses represent the bodhisattva at lesiure in his personal realm, a paradisiacal world thought to be located on the seacoast of the Fujian Province. The unusual belt worn by this figure illustrates the taste of the Qidan people of the northeast, who ruled much of northern China as the Lian dynasty from the tenth to the early 12th century.

Fletcher Fund 1928 (28.56)

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National Historic Register #86003556