The Bodhisattva Mile (Sanskrit Maitreya), seated in "Pensive Pose"

Object Details

• Label

  This sculpture of a bodhisattva, or enlightened being, probably represents the Buddha of the Future (Maitreya in the Indian language Sanskrit) while he was waiting to be reborn into the world as a Buddha. Maitreya waits in heaven meditating beneath a Dragon Tree, which Chinese sculptors typically interpreted to be a ginkgo, like the tree here. The depiction of children emerging from lotuses in a pond on the base of this sculpture is a rare detail on an image of Maitreya.

• Provenance

  To 1911

  Ta Ge Shang, Beijing, to 1911 [1]

  From 1911 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Ta Ge Shang in 1911 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 308, pg. 76, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia (October 14, 2017 to February 6, 2022)

  Promise of Paradise (October 14, 2017 - ongoing)

  Buddhist Art (May 9, 1993 to August 9, 2011)

  Studies in Connoisseurship 1923-1983 (September 23, 1983 to March 1, 1984)

  Early Chinese Pottery and Scultpure, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1916 (March 6 to October 15, 1916)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Ta Ge Shang (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Sculpture

• On View

  Freer Gallery 17: Promise of Paradise

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  500s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Ge Shang, Ta

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Meditation, Maitreya Buddha, Chinese Art, Northern Qi dynasty (550 - 577), Reincarnation, Children, Lotus, Stone, Halo, Ushnisha

• Culture

  Buddhists, Chinese

• Object Type

  Sculpture

• On View

  Yes