Object-Votive tablet
Title-The Twin miracles
Date-11th century-12th century
Techniques-Terracotta, deeply impressed from an intaglio mould
Place-Pagan, Burma
Dimensions-Height 7.375 inWidth 5.375 in
Current Location-Victoria & Albert Museum
Museum number-IM.305-1921
Museum number-IM.305-1921
This clay votive tablet, reportedly found at Tagaung, Pagan, northern Burma (now Myanmar), depicts the Buddha seated beneath the tower of the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya, in eastern India. He is seated in the lotus pose with his right hand in the gesture of touching or witnessing the earth (bhumisparsa mudra), the gesture which more than any other represents the moment of his enlightenment. He is flanked by standing figures of the Dipankara Buddha on the left and of Maitreya Buddha on the right. The branches of the Bodhi tree, under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment, branch out from the central niche. In the upper part of the tablet are a number of small votive stupas (the funeral mound which housed the Buddha's relics and which became the symbol of his transcendental form and the primary Buddhist momument). At the bottom is the single line of a Buddhist prayer in the devanagari script. Clay votive tablets of the Buddha, quotes from Buddhist texts, and divine figures represent a significant element of the archaeological record of early Buddhist sites in South East Asia
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