The Buddha triumphing over Mara

Made for one of northeast India’s monasteries—where many of Tibetan Buddhism’s teachings and artistic ideas originated—this sculpture shows the historical Buddha seated under a parasol and a pair of branches bearing the distinctive spade-shaped leaves of the bodhi tree. With his right hand in the earth-touching gesture, he dismisses the demon Mara’s assaults and prepares the ground, at last, for his awakening. The inscription within his halo is a doctrinal formula sometimes called the Buddhist Creed:

The Buddha has explained the cause of all things that arise from a cause. He, the great monk, has also explained their cessation.