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Medicine Buddha (Manla)
Tibetan
19th century
Object Place: Tibet
Medium/Technique
Distemper on cotton
Dimensions
82 x 59 cm (32 5/16 x 23 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number21.740
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia
ClassificationsPaintings
DescriptionPainting with no borders, possibly originally in thangka format.
At the center, a Buddha (alternately identified as Amitabha) sits with hands in meditation posture, holding a begging bowl. He is surrounded by trees and mountains. Below the central figure are adoring monks and a table of offerings with vases of flowers and an offering bowl filled with "offerings of the 5 senses" (mirror, conch, cymbals, scarf, and ?). In lower corners, pavilions with seated figures inside, one of them in Mongolian attire (perhaps a donor?). In the upper area of the painting, a figure of Amitayus is flanked by apsarases.
At the center, a Buddha (alternately identified as Amitabha) sits with hands in meditation posture, holding a begging bowl. He is surrounded by trees and mountains. Below the central figure are adoring monks and a table of offerings with vases of flowers and an offering bowl filled with "offerings of the 5 senses" (mirror, conch, cymbals, scarf, and ?). In lower corners, pavilions with seated figures inside, one of them in Mongolian attire (perhaps a donor?). In the upper area of the painting, a figure of Amitayus is flanked by apsarases.
Provenance1921, William Sturgis Bigelow, Boston, MA; 1921, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 7, 1921)