Head of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This head—all that survives of one of the finest metal images of Avalokiteshvara from the Cham territories—attests to the superb metal-casting skills of Cham artisans. A large diadem with three floral medallions frames Avalokiteshvara’s face, and Amitabha Buddha is perched between the crown and the chignon. A rectangular hole behind the front medallion was likely intended to receive a relic (sarira), inserted as part of the image’s consecration ritual. The towering jata of braided hair belongs to a pan–Southeast Asian bodhisattva type that was emerging during the eighth and ninth centuries.
cat. no. 168
cat. no. 168
Artwork Details
- Title: Head of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
- Date: 8th–9th century
- Culture: Central Vietnam
- Medium: Copper alloy
- Dimensions: H. 9 1/16 in. (23 cm); W. 7 1/16 in. (18 cm); D. 7 1/16 in. (18 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Musée National des Arts Asiatiques–Guimet, Paris, Gift of Georges Halphen, 2002 (MA7067)
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art