This is a statue of Bodhisattva Maitreya, meaning ‘Buddha of the Future’. Basically it is Pakistani and made of schist. The reason why it is known as Maitreya is because of the symbols in his left hand and his hairstyle. When you look closer to his left hand there is a feature of the lip of the water flask that is considered to be sacred. Also, there is an apparent characteristic that his hairstyle is long and loop topknot compared to other buddha statues. The very common thing we can easily notice is that the Buddha has a very short hair, especially curly, so that the big ears with many jewels, which symbolize his power and wealth, are easily exposed. However, the long hair of this statue almost covers his ears and the clothes look worn out and inexpensive.
This is a statue of standing Buddha. It is indian and made of Bronze. In my opinion, this material makes the statue look more fancy and classy than the previous work. As expected, it has common features that he has long and big ears with jewels, and short curly hair. He shows a different gesture of his hands. The previous buddha has no right hand and his right palm is folded while this buddha has both unfold palms; the left palm faces upward with some folded fingers and the right palm faces forward. Moreover, this statue looks feminine because of his skinny body type compared to the previous statue which I can see muscular build.
Dukhwa Seo
