The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Darkened green bronze sculpture of the Goddess Durga, standing facing us with four arms, a circular item in each hand save for the lower left from which hangs a roughly cylindrical pole curving in to connect with the rectangular base on which Durga stands. At the center of the base is a bull's head over which Durga, wearing a squared skirt and no top stands. She has elongated ears, smiles faintly, and wears a headdress.

Durga as the Slayer of the Buffalo Demon

900s

Cambodia, probably Koh Ker

bronze
Overall: 52 x 18.4 x 12.5 cm (20 1/2 x 7 1/4 x 4 15/16 in.); without tang: 44.8 cm (17 5/8 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1996.27
Location: 244 Indian and Southeast Asian

Did You Know?

The figure wears a head-dress, kirita-makuta, a diadem tied in the back and pointed at top.

Description

This depiction of Durga is rare and important, as it is a large-scale example of the goddess in bronze. Her conquest over the buffalo demon is indicated by its severed head at her feet. She stands four-armed and triumphant, with a wheel, conch shell, mace, and clod of earth in her hands.
  • ?–1996
    (Natasha Eilenberg, Cornwall, CT, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1996–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Asia House Gallery, and Daguan Zhou. Khmer Sculpture. New York: Asia House Gallery, 1961.
    Lee, Sherman E. Ancient Cambodian Sculpture. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1969.
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Rare Egyptian Sculpture, Old Master Painting, Important Cambodian Bronze,” June 13, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Czuma, Stanislaw J. "Slayer of the Buffalo Demon." The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine April 1997: pp. 8–9. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 8–9 archive.org
    Bunker, Emma C., and Douglas Latchford. Khmer Bronzes: New Interpretations of the Past. Chicago: Art Media Resources, 2011. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 174, fig. 5.29
    Bassoul, Aziz. Splendour of Khmer Iconography: Ancient Cambodian Art of the 5th to the 13th Centuries in Major World Museums and Private Collections. Beirut: Cedar of Lebanon Editions, 2018. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 58, no. 21
  • Reinstallation of “Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan”. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 12, 2024-November 2, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=Durga as the Slayer of the Buffalo Demon|url=false|author=|year=900s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1996.27