A Silver and Gilt Copper Caitya

Paul Brandt, Amsterdam, before 1970

BJ Meddens Collection, The Netherlands

Four silver Buddhas sit adorsed on lotus thrones beneath a silver caitya with gilded spire, set upon a square dais draped with cloth supported by a tapered and tiered lotus pedestal. The figures represent Buddhist mythology incorporated in the form of a caitya, or reliquary, the symbol of Buddha’s enlightenment.

Buddhist caitya are ubiquitous in the Kathmandu valley, and in addition to monumental caitya such as Bodhanatha and Svyambhunatha smaller examples in stone dating from the Licchavi period (c. 400-879) onwards grace courtyards of vihara, public squares and private residences, see Mary Shepherd Slusser, Nepal Mandala: a Cultural Study of the Kathmandu Valley, Princeton, 1982, pls. 142, 276.

The present example made in precious metal may have been a devotee’s personal shrine for use on a private altar, or part of a larger construction in a temple setting. The form of the caitya with four adorsed Buddha figures beneath a caitya finial is quintessentially Nepalese and deeply evocative of Kathmandu valley culture.