Buddha (600s): Art, History and Details

Buddha (600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This elegant, monumental sculpture is the earliest type of Buddha image to be made in Southeast Asia. It comes from a site in north-central Thailand that was part of the Dvaravati kingdom (500s–1200s). The body shows direct links with the sculptural traditions at Sarnath in northern India on the banks of the Ganges River. The expression of the face has the peaceful introspection that became canonical during the Gupta period of the 5th century in India. The shape of the head and facial features—unlike Indian precursors—suggest that the artists and patrons of Dvaravati made the Buddha resemble the local Mon population. The figure's stance has been rendered with remarkable fluidity, and the abstracted caps of the knees and minimalist modeling of the pelvis lend the figure an otherworldly, transcendent demeanor, balanced by the approachable smiling countenance.

Object facts

• Title: Buddha
• Date: 600s
• Culture: Thailand, probably Shri Thep, Mon-Dvaravati style
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: sandstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 132.7 cm (52 1/4 in.); without tang: 114.2 cm (44 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Southeast Asian
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1973.15

A detail from the museum

Now reunited for display, CMA acquired the sculpture in two pieces, when the feet (CMA 1974.91) and the body were found in separate locations.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "The Year in Review for 1973." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (1974): 31–78.
• “Annual Report for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 6 (June 1974): 179–213.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.