Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2009

Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin)
Tang dynasty (618-907), late 7th-early 8th century
Gilded bronze

Accession # 42.25.27

The small sculpture of a Buddha in his headdress and the pot that he holds in his proper right hand identify the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. The shape of the pot and the birdlike cap, on the other hand, typify metalwork and ceramics produced in China in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.