Buddhist Temple, Kalani (c. 1880): Art, History and Details

Buddhist Temple, Kalani (c. 1880) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Scowen & Co. (British, active Ceylon, 1876–1895).

The work and its context

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

This image may actually show the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, a sacred fig tree planted in 288 BC in Mahamewna Gardens, Anuradhapura, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Grown from a cutting of the tree in India under which Buddha attained enlightenment, it is one of the most sacred Buddhist relics in Sri Lanka.

Object facts

• Title: Buddhist Temple, Kalani
• Date: c. 1880
• Creator attribution: Scowen & Co. (British, active Ceylon, 1876–1895)
• Culture: Sri Lanka, Kandy
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: Albumen print from glass plate negative
• Dimensions: Image: 21.5 x 27.7 cm (8 7/16 x 10 7/8 in.); Paper: 21.5 x 27.7 cm (8 7/16 x 10 7/8 in.); Mounted: 29 x 37 cm (11 7/16 x 14 9/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - British 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2018.38

A detail from the museum

Next to the tree are the buildings of a monastery and a whitewashed, dome-shaped structure with pointed spire, called a stupa.

Collection credit

Gift of Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer

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.