The State Hermitage Museum: Exhibitions

Maravijaya - the"Buddha who vanquished Mara" - a name given in Siam to the episode in which Gautama called upon the Earth goddess to bear witness and gained victory over Mara, the lord of evil forces.
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Siamese sculpture in the Hermitage

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Walking Buddha

Sukhothai

15th century (?)

Bronze, mother of pearl

Height: 41 cm

A very late restoration and the small chips scattered across the face of the Buddha give him a sterner, more distant expression that he would originally have had. This sculpture is the only one in the Hermitage collection that allows us to fully grasp the peculiarities of the "supernatural anatomy" of the Buddha that the craftsmen of Sukhothai sought to convey: a large upper body and narrow waist; a torso equally rounded on both sides; arms so long that the Buddha could touch his knees without bending; legs like the trunk of a banyan tree... The stylized bend of the right arm, hanging freely alongside the body and repeating its lines, also appeared first in Sukhothai.

Walking Buddha
Larger view

Buddha - "the enlightened one" - an epithet given to Prince Siddhartha of the Shakya tribe after he attained a state of boddhi, "Enlightenment", when he grasped the Sublime Wisdom. The founder of Buddhism, one of the three ancient Indian religions.
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Sukhothai - a cape that is one of the three components of monastic dress, worn over the other two.
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