A turquoise-inlaid gilt-copper figure of Vasudhara, Nepal, 16th century | 尼泊爾 十六世紀 銅鎏金嵌寶毘財源天母坐像

The finely cast and gilded copper figure depicts the six-armed goddess of abundance with a separately cast halo and holding a prajnaparamita manuscript, a sheaf of grain and a vase of plenty (kalasha) in her left hands, a flaming jewel with a jewelled hanging (chintamani), and a gem (ratna) in her right hands, and the uppermost in a gesture of fearlessness (abhaya mudra). She wears a diaphanous sash across her upper torso, a floral-patterned lower garment, turquoise inset crown and jewellery, and is seated in royal ease (lalitasana) on a separate repoussé copper pedestal. Vasudhara is probably the most popular Buddhist goddess among the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley, and statues such as this are often worshipped on devotees’ home shrines as a divine provider of wealth and well-being: the goddess has no major public shrine in the Valley. Compare the finely modelled and distinctive facial expression with a Nepalese gilt copper Manjushri and consort in the Denver Art Museum, dated 1570, in Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pl. 100F.