THAILAND OR INDONESIA, SHRIVIJAYA, 9TH CENTURY

This unusual bronze of Avalokiteshvara with slender form is representative of the mature style of the powerful Kingdom of Shrivijaya, spanning from Indonesia over Malaysia to Southern Thailand. It closely relates to another figure of Avalokiteshvara, slightly smaller in size and lacking the base, in the National Museum, Bangkok, see The Sculpture of Thailand, Asia House Gallery, 1972, cat. no. 12; and to a four-armed Avalokiteshvara found in a riverbed at Palembang, Sumatra, in 1930, now at the Museum National, Jakarta, with similar hairstyle and facial expression, but lacking the tiger skin dhoti, see Versunkene Konigreiche Indonesiens, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, 1995, cat. no. 9. The tiger skin is barely discernable but for the dangling tail over his left upper thigh modeled in relief.
The unusual square plinth issuing a lotus base follows an Indian prototype; compare with the 6th century bronze figure of a standing Buddha from the famous Phophnar group, see S.P. Gupta, Masterpieces from the National Museum Collection, New Delhi,, 1985, cat. no. 56, p. 50.