Collections / Explore the Collection
Today at the Museum

May 23, 2013
LECTURE

Thinking Globally: Exploring the MIA's Indian and Southeast Asian Art Collection

7 – 8 p.m.
Pillsbury Auditorium

Presenter: Risha Lee, the MIA's Jane Emison Assistant Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art. The MIA's Indian and Southeast Asian art collection contains many gems of art, produced in a variety of times and places. In an introduction to the collecti...
Seated Kuan-yin
Title:Seated Kuan-yin
Artist:Artist Unknown
Date:Southern Sung dynasty
Creation Place:Asia, China
Credit Line:Gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton
Accession Number:99.24.2
The supreme sculptural representation of the bodhisattva Kuan-yin during late Sung was "Kuan-yin of the Southern Seas" or the "Water Moon Kuan-yin." The subject is taken from the Gandavyuha chapter of the Avatamsaka sutra in which Kuan-yin is visited on Mount Potalaka (in the southern seas) and found sitting before a rocky grotto watching the reflection of the moon in the water and meditating on the illusionary nature of existence. With this theme, the bodhisattva is typically portrayed in the posture of "royal ease" (maharajalilasana) seated informally upon a rockwork pedestal representing Mount Potalaka's craggy shore. Kuan-yin's expression is serene, with eyes half-closed in meditation; a carved openwork crown with a seated image of the Buddha Amitaba at its center rests upon the bodhisattva's head. The figure is ornately dressed with a dhoti skirt, silk scarves, a profusion of jewelry, elaborate hair, and a high headdress.