The Buddha stands with his weight on the right leg, the left slightly bent at the knee and with a gentle sway of the hips (tribhanga). The right hand is lowered in the gesture of generosity (varada mudra), and the left holds the gathered folds of his robe up to the left shoulder. The simple diaphanous monastic robe covers both shoulders with a cascade of cloth falling to either side; the hem of an undergarment shows beneath the robe just above the ankles. The posture and robe style are ultimately derived from Indian Gupta-Period (circa 320-647) models such as Asia Society’s circa sixth-century standing bronze Buddha with a diaphanous robe clinging to the contours of the body.1
The hand gestures of the Gupta Buddha differ from the Nepalese model with the right hand raised in abhaya mudra and the lowered left hand holding the folds of cloth. Newar artists adopted the mudras seen in this gilt-copper example as their preferred iconography from the middle to end of the Licchavi (circa 400-879) through the Transitional Period (circa 879-1200), becoming the archetype of the standing Buddha image in the Kathmandu Valley. Towards the end of this period, however, the adherence to Gupta sculptural models is diminished, and even the popularity of this iconographic form of the Buddha seems to have waned. The facial characteristics of the present example remain faithful to the Gupta/Licchavi model, with aquiline nose, the full and protruding lower lip, and meditative gaze, together with the subtle movement of the body and the clinging robe style with cascading folds of cloth at either side. The continued observance of the Gupta/Licchavi aesthetic suggests a date of around the tenth century, before the decline of the Transitional Period.
Although cast in the Kathmandu Valley, this statue was evidently worshiped in Tibet: traces of polychrome remaining on the back of the neck and hair indicate Tibetan ritual practice. A tang, now broken, protrudes from the back of the sculpture between the shoulders, and a thin plate is cast beneath the feet to attach a separate, now missing, lotus pedestal.
1 Pratapaditya Pal, The Ideal Image, Asia Society exhibition catalogue, New York, 1978, no. 63
