Buddha statuette

The Buddha sits enthroned on a double lotus; his figure is held vertically upright, his crossed legs turned with the soles facing outward. This pose is characteristic of merciful manifestations of Buddhist deities and has many names — the "diamond seat" or the "lotus position." It embodies an important idea of Buddhism: meditative contemplation leading to the attainment of truth. The hair is arranged in a high topknot over the crown — the so-called ushnisha, one of the 32 marks of the Buddha. Above it rises a detail resembling the point of a spear or a stylized depiction of the precious "chintamani" jewel. Such an adornment of the ushnisha is characteristic of the sculpture of Tibet and Thailand. A monk's mantle, covering one shoulder, is draped over the figure of the deity.

In Northern Buddhism (Mahayana), the concept of the "three bodies" of the Buddha was developed. In it, the Buddha appears in three manifestations, on three levels — on earth, in heaven, and as the spiritual first-principle of the world. In the "realm of desire," on earth, the Buddha has a human "manifested body" (Sanskrit: nirmanakaya), depicted in monastic dress (the mantle). This is a particular form of the "universal" body of the Buddha, in the form of earthly Buddhas, among them Shakyamuni.

Due to the fragmentary condition of the object, it is not possible to determine its exact identity.

The statuette of Buddha was made in the 18th–19th century. The object was found in the Sloboda Ukraine region and entered the museum's holdings in 1949.