THAILAND, LOPBURI PERIOD, 13TH CENTURY

The iconography of Buddhamuchalinda is taken from a specific event in the life of Buddha Shakyamuni happening within six weeks of his Enlightenment at Bodhgaya in north India. It tells the story of the serpent king Muchalinda who emerged from his subterranean abode and extended his large hood over the meditating Buddha in order to protect him during his meditation as a storm broke out. This image became very popular in Thailand and Cambodia during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A comparable example is in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore and is published by H.W. Woodward, Jr. in The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand: The Alexander B. Griswold Collection: The Walters Art Gallery, London, 1997, p. 112.