Thousand Arms Beneath a Pointed Halo

Viewing notes

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

This many-armed standing bodhisattva in warm wood tones is backed by a tall, pointed, arch-shaped aureole. She stands on a lotus pedestal, her principal hands pressed together at her chest, eyes lowered and bearing dignified. Arms open in tiers at her sides, holding round plaques, rosaries, flowering branches and more, while the outermost ring of fine small arms follows the very contour of the aureole, merging into its surface of scale patterning and scrolling borders. Above her crown, four heads rise one above another in steps, climbing to just beneath the aureole's point like a road going up. Below the lotus, a hexagonal base stacks in tiers of fretwork and vine scrolls. For a many-armed subject the scale is restrained, but none of the presence is lost. She suits enshrining in a shrine niche, or a study or entryway where she will be seen up close — the nearer you come, the more of that densely worked aureole you can read.