_Hi Everyone
This is a collection of ancient and very valuable Buddha Statues I photographed last week while visiting The Victroia & Albert Museum in London.
This first statue is from the Ming Dynasty era of China 1500 - 1600ad
_
_Amida Buddha - 1200 -1300ad
In the early 13th centaury images of Amida Buddha proliferated as the pure land sect spread throughout Japan.
The easily understandable doctrine taught that anyone ,regardless of status could achieve rebirth in the Pure land_
_A Buddhist Shrine form Burma dating from 1850 - 1830.
Shakyamuni Buddha is the main figure of this shrine. The hour glass form beneath him is a miniature model of the Buddhist cosmos encompassing all the possible levels of being , which he is beyond_
_The Emaciated Buddha - 1868 -1910
This Buddha is of Thai origin from somewhere around the late 19th to early 20th century.
Although his body is wasted from 6 years of extreme fasting his focused expression suggests and inner spiritual strength._
_This Buddha is from the Northern Qi Dynasty era of China 550 -577ad.
Traces of paint show that the figure was once brightly coloured.
The style suggest that the figure probably came from the cave temple complex at Xiangtangshang_
_This is a statue of a "Luohan" which dates from 1279 - 1367 China.
An enlightened being who has attained Nirvana is called a Luohan in Chinese or an Arhart in Sanskrit.
Luohan's are immortal and maintain the Buddhas teaching until a new Buddha is born. _
_This Buddha is from Pakistan ad is dated from sometime between 400 - 500ad.
_
This is the oldest Buddha I saw while visiting the museum. It dates from some time between 200 - 400ad and is from The Kushan Dynasty era in Pakistan.
This buddha head is from China sometime during the Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644. It is part of a giant statue which would have been expensive to make and was most likely homed in one of Chinas richer temples.
_This buddha is from Qing Dynasty China - 1736 - 1786.
The buddha is shown just before enlightenment when he lowers his right hand to the ground to call the earth goddess to witness his worthiness to attain liberation.
_
I hope you all enjoyed this little showcase of some very old Buddhas.
Stay tuned for more treasure's from the Victoria & Albert museum's coming soon.
For the best experience view this post on Liketu
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 27/47) Liquid rewards.
Looks like an interesting museum.wouldn't guess that it is located in London.
The Victoria and Albert Museum is one of if not the largest museums in the world. I went on 2 seperate days and took over 500 photographs and still only saw around half of it. They have more than 2 million items in thier collection many of which are priceless works of art.
The China and Japan exhibitions were the most interesting to me but there is a little of everything there.
Its free to enter and there were no restrictions on taking photographs. It is well worth a visit if your ever in London.
I remember this museum is beautiful, I hope to return to London