Seated Buddha

Sri Lanka, an island near the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent, has always had strong cultural links with India. For many centuries Sri Lanka was a stronghold of Buddhism (which was founded in India) and saw itself as preserving some of the earliest and most authentic traditions of the Buddha’s teachings.
From the 1000s through the 1400s Buddhist monks traveled from Sri Lanka to kingdoms in what are now Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos (and sometimes from these kingdoms back to Sri Lanka), spreading their understanding of Buddhism. The monks sometimes carried with them not just copies of holy texts but small artworks, which may have had an influence on art styles of the places to which they traveled.
In 1505 the Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka. Their destruction of Buddhist monasteries, which they carried out to eliminate “idolatry” and promote Christianity, began a long period of decline in Sri Lankan Buddhism. In the 1700s, however, the rulers of Kandy, a small Sri Lankan kingdom that had held out against European domination, sought to reinvigorate Buddhism in their realm. They built or refurbished temples, endowed monastic institutions, and reopened contacts with the Buddhist kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia.
The Buddha image on display here dates from that period of revival. It mixes old features such as general proportions and body positions with newer ones such as the large flame on the top of the head and the rhythmic, wavy treatment of the folds of the monastic robe.