Figure of a Monk

Shown in the gesture of discourse or expounding the law (vitarka mudra), this monk has been rendered with particular sensitivity and with a minimum of detail. The statue relates closely in size, style and surface condition to four priest statues remaining in Far Eastern temples. Scholarship now shows that the group, once thought to be Japanese in origin, is actually Chinese and that the ultimate stylistic source for the sculpture is rooted in Tang dynasty sculpture (618-907).