The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Portable Buddhist Temple

900s

Eastern India, Bihar

Kaolin with traces of pigment
Overall: 28 x 9 x 9 cm (11 x 3 9/16 x 3 9/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1971.167
Location: Not on view

Description

The large niches on each side contain scenes from the life of the Buddha. The first features his mother Maya after his miraculous birth. The second and fourth depict his triumph over the forces of evil that attempted to frighten and seduce him away from the path to enlightenment. The third scene takes place after he has established a monastic following and depicts his wife bringing their son to meet him.

Kaolinite is a compacted mineral that approximates ivory in its ability to be carved with fine details. Visitors to sacred Buddhist sites would commission portable sculptures such as this to commemorate their pious pilgrimage.
  • ?–1971
    (Roland Do Huu, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1971–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1971.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 59, no. 1, 1972, pp. 3–46. Mentioned: p. 47, no. 169; Reproduced: p. 26, no. 169 25152412
    Huntington, Susan L., and John C. Huntington. Leaves from the Bodhi Tree: The Art of Pāla India (8th-12th Centuries) and Its International Legacy. Dayton, OH: Dayton Art Institute in association with the University of Washington Press, 1990. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 41, pp. 168–170
    Banerji, Naseem A. "The mihrabs in the Adina Mosque: evidence of the reuse of late Pala-Sena remains." Marg 50, Issue 3 (March 1999), pp. 82–93. Reproduced: fig. 8, p. 84
  • Sacred India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1985-January 12, 1986).
  • {{cite web|title=Portable Buddhist Temple|url=false|author=|year=900s|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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