A ROCK-CRYSTAL FIGURE OF SEATED BUDDHA AND STAND, AYUTTHAYA, 14TH – 15TH CENTURY | 十四至十五世紀 暹羅阿瑜陀耶水晶菩薩坐像

陳淑貞，香港

Susan Chen, Hong Kong.

Rock-crystal images of Buddha similar to this were created from the late fifteenth century in the workshops of Hot, a town in Thailand. Buddhist texts frequently refer to a list of seven precious substances (sapta-ratna), of which crystal is an example. Images of crystal were therefore suitable as donations to monasteries.

Crystal is not only precious, but is also a Buddhist metaphor for enlightened states of awareness. These states include nirvana and emptiness (shunyata), both of which are described in Buddhist texts as “unobstructed” in the same way that crystal offers no obstruction to the passage of light. Thus, although this crystal Buddha is small, he is the substance and symbol of great, even ultimate, value.

Another rock-crystal figure of Buddha of similar size, but with a headdress decorated with gold and rubies, is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, a gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Southeast Asian Art Collection, object number 2006.27.38.