Crowned Śākyamuni Buddha

Although in earlier forms of Buddhism, buddhas appeared in simple monk’s robes, in Tibetan Buddhism a buddha wearing a crown typically indicates that he is one of the Five Tantric Buddhas. Each of these buddhas heads a “family” of other deities, and the five often appear together arranged in a maṇḍala, a multifaceted symbolic map of an enlightened universe.

Much less common are icons like this one, that portray Śākyamuni Buddha, the buddha of our era, wearing a crown and with his right hand in the earth-touching gesture (bhūmisparśa mudrā). Some scholars interpret the crown as representing the Buddha is his role as “Wheel-Turning King,” or Ćakravartin, the ideal of an enlightened universal ruler. In Crowned Śākyamuni icons, the Buddha still wears the simple robes of a monk, whereas the Five Tantric Buddhas wear the more complex robes of peaceful deities like bodhisattvas.

The style of this work helps to date it to the long Malla Period in Nepal (1200–1769), when artists from the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley produced some of the most beautiful and influential works of Tibetan Buddhist art.