The Enlightened One

This fine, luminous painting shows the Shakyamuni Buddha sitting cross-legged in padmasana (the lotus posture) with his right hand in the earth-witness gesture (bhumisparsha mudra). When the Shakyamuni attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree he was alone with no one to witness this momentous event. He thus called upon the Earth itself to be his witness by touching the ground with his right hand. This gesture is known as the bhumisparsha mudra.

In his left hand he holds a begging bowl, and sits in a calm and lordly grandeur. His full but gracefully delineated golden body is garbed in robes of red, marked with golden motifs all over. Buddha is represented with extended earlobes, empty of adornment, but which were once stretched out of shape by the weight of the costly jewelry he wore before renouncing his princely status.

In Mahayana Buddhist art, the Buddha is typically represented as a young, ideally proportioned man dressed in simple monk's robes. But he is distinguished from ordinary humans by thirty-two sacred identifying features, or Lakshana. Among the most frequently observed are: the Ushnisha, a cranial bump on the head of the Buddha symbolizing wisdom; the Urna, an auspicious tuft of hair between the eyebrows of the Buddha which looks very much like a third eye on his forehead, and which represents his power to illuminate the world.

The central figure of the Buddha dominates the composition. To his lower left and right can be seen his two great disciples, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, who are famous for their intellectual and mystical powers, respectively.

Click Here to View the Thangka Painting along with its Brocade

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