CHINA, 18TH CENTURY OR LATER

The bodhisattva sits in dhyanasana on a double-lotus base, with his right hand raised holding a sword and his left held before his chest, and was once clutching the stem of a lotus which adorned his left elbow and supported a book. He is dressed in a voluminous dhoti and adorned with ornamented jewelry as described in the Vajrayana Buddhist scriptures.
The figure’s multi-tiered chignon, the way in which the triangular ends of his robes fall over both of his knees, and the flat wide casting of the lotus petals on the base, all point to the Chinese origin of this fine bronze figure. Easily portable images of Manjushri like this were common to the Qing period.