Standing Bodhisattva in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2007

Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya (Buddha of the Future)
Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara),
ca. 3rd century AD
Schist

Accession # 1991.75

This bodhisattva can be identified as Maitreya by the lip of the sacred water flask in his left hand and his loop topknot, a hairstyle common to Maitreya images. On the base, donor figures venerate a Buddhist reliquary that rests on a low throne under a canopy.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.