Holding Up the Buddha

Viewing notes

A viewer's written impression — not a buyer review or first-hand record

This many-armed standing bodhisattva in warm wood tones rises from a lotus pedestal, a circular halo dense with arms behind her. Her main face is lowered in a soft smile, her principal hands pressed together at her chest and a lower pair cradling a lotus at her belly. Above her crown, further faces are stacked in tiers, and at the very top one pair of arms lifts high a small Buddha seated on a lotus — as if drawing every gaze in the piece to that single point. The arms at her sides hold implements, rosaries, round plaques and treasures, and the outermost pair steadies two golden staffs taller than her head, one ringed, one a trident. Uncountable small arms fill the halo, dense yet never crowding against her tall, slender figure. The lotus below is crisply petalled, set on a plain square base. All warm wood, she suits veneration — and equally a high-ceilinged space, where, looking up, that lifted Buddha lands exactly at the end of your sightline.