Buddha Sculpture from the Collection of Victor and Herta Grove
Among the thirty-nine South Asian and Chinese sculptures that were donated to Haverford in March 2011 by Herta Grove, a friend of the college, is a white marble statue of Buddha. 
There is relatively little history known about this 16″ carving, which may have come from Thailand or Burma, and the date of its creation is unknown. Several dabs of color on the marble indicate it may once have been painted. Lacking any solid data, we can focus on Buddha himself and the various ways in which he has been depicted, as well as on the style of this particular Buddha. Sakyamuni Buddha, who lived for approximately eighty years in what is today northern India and southern Nepal sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE, was the most recent of a series of buddhas who have appeared in the past and will appear again in the future, but he was the Buddha for the current period. Over time, Buddhism spread to Japan and China and many countries of South and East Asia.
Buddha is generally represented seated, standing or reclining. The pose and hand-gesture, known as mudra, is meaningful and specific to a region, so, for example, the Vajra mudra where the right hand is above the left which holds the fifth finger of the right hand is popular in Japan and Korea, but rarely in India. In the marble statue under examination, the pose is known as the earth to witness mudra, the left hand crossing the torso, while the right gracefully descends toward earth, symbolizes the Buddha summoning the earth goddess, Sthavara, to bear witness to his worthiness of attaining enlightenment. Other physical aspects in this representation are elongated earlobes denoting exceptional perception, and a protuberance on the top of the head denoting superb mental acuity.
Please visit Special Collections www.haverford.edu/library/special/index.php where the collection is currently housed.
Tags: Buddhist art, Sculpture--Asia