A gilt bronze figure of Amitayus China, Qianlong mark and period, dated 1770 AD

dressed as a bodhisattva seated in dhyanasana upon a square base borne at the corners by stylised vajra with scrolled terminals, the hands in dhyanamudra supporting a vase, now missing, adorned with high foliate crown, earrings and pectoral, set against a separate shaped mandorla of flames, with a cascading cloth falling at the front above the reignmark dated Qianlong gengyin jingzao

The present example is one of a two series of figures of Amitayus, the Buddha of Eternal Life and Eternal Light (Ch. Wuliangshoufo), commissioned by the Emperor Qianlong to gain Buddhist merit and to endow particular monasteries in AD 1761 and 1770. A similar figure complete with the vase attribute, was exhibited Chang Foundation, Taipei, Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, no.21. Compare the painted representation of Amitayus in a famous sutra executed by Liu Yung, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, exhibited Emperor Ch'ien-Lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, Taipei, 2002, cat.no. II-16.