Unknown Artist
Hevajra mandala
- Location
- Upper Asian gallery
- Further information
This work is a three-dimensional mandala, or cosmic diagram, of Hevajra, who is the chief deity of the Tantric (Vajrayana) Buddhist path to enlightenment. Unlike Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, the Tantric school believed that, with serious application and the guidance of a religious teacher, an initiate could achieve enlightenment in this life. The main exercise was meditation. While meditating, the practitioner focused all his mental energy on a deity, in this case Hevajra, thereby transferring to himself the characteristics of the deity. The cult of Hevajra flourished in Cambodia between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Here Hevajra stands in the centre on an eight-petalled lotus surrounded by dakhinis, minor female divinities in Tantric Buddhism, and one unidentified other figure.
Asian Art Department, AGNSW, May 2011
- Place of origin
-
Cambodia
- Cultural origin
- Khmer
- Year
- late 12th century
- Media
- Sculpture
- Medium
- bronze
- Dimensions
- 39.0 x 23.5cm overall; 29.7cm Hevarjra figure height; 9.0 x 23.5 base; 13.0 - 15.0cm approx. six dakini figures
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Goldie Sternberg Southeast Asian Art Purchase Fund 2001
- Accession number
- 1.2001
