Bodhisattva Vajraraksha (c. 900s): Art, History and Details

Bodhisattva Vajraraksha (c. 900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Once part of a set of sculptures depicting the enlightened beings who occupy a perfect world called the Diamond Realm (Vajradhatu), this figure holds the collar of his jacket in a gesture specific to him. An important practice in Tibetan Buddhism is the visualization of the Diamond Realm as described in texts and aided by artistic representations called mandalas. Bodhisattva Vajraraksha sits in the northern quadrant as a subsidiary figure to the Buddha Amoghasiddhi, who is green in color and quells fear.

Object facts

• Title: Bodhisattva Vajraraksha
• Date: c. 900s
• Culture: Western Tibet
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.8 x 7 cm (4 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Tibetan Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1989.363

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.