Dressed
in traditional monks robe, seated in an easy posture (lalitasna)
on a double cushion incised with floral patterns, this heavily
gilded small statue of an arhat is remarkably robust. He is
seen here with his crisp facial features, raised eyebrows
and sharply round eyes. From the finely modeled clothing to
minute details in the arhat's fingers and toes, its superb
artistry indicates quality which was most likely produced
for awarding the sixteen Lharampa degrees in Gelugpa scholarstic
achivements during the 18th century.
There
is no doubt that this is one of the 18 arhats frequently portrayed
in Buddhist art. However, since the statue has lost its attribute,
it is difficult to verify his identity for certain. Judging
from the overall impression: the position of his right hand
suggests that he may had once held a vajra, and in his left
the gesture of tajra mudra, which symbolizes conquering five
obscuring emotions. With these iconographic symbols in mind,
we tentatively attributed the statue to be Vajriputra, which
in Tibetan means "Son of Dorje Mo", the fifth arhat who was
known to lived in Sri Lanka with 1000 disciples.
