G681 ANDESITE STANDING TARA


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G681 ANDESITE STANDING TARA
INDONESIA, CENTRAL JAVA
8TH – 9TH CENTURY
H. 79 CMS, 31 INS.
A magnificent crowned and jewelled andesite figure of the goddess Tara standing in a slight tribhanga on a double lotus pedestal, wearing an ankle length sampot secured at the waist with an intricate belt, her demeanour soft and sensuous, holding a long lotus stem in her right hand and an unidentified object (perhaps a lotus bud) in her left, a circular nimbus behind her head.The Buddhist female deity Tara comes in many forms and is the counterpart of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.

The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide has a closely related Tara, reportedly from Klaten (between Prambanan and Surakarta), Central Java:

 For two fine examples of Taras at Candi Sari, near Kalasan, Central Java, see plates 120 and 121 in 179 in A.J. Bernet Kempers, Ancient Indonesian Art, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1959.

Provenance: Private UK collection.