The Buddhist deity Chunda in her sixteen-armed form

Buddhism flourished in Central Java from the late 700s to the early 900s. This period was marked by the construction of dozens of small temples as well as elaborate world-famous monuments like Borobodur. During this era bronze images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas were produced in great numbers.

Here Chunda, a Buddhist goddess of wisdom, sits with two of her hands in the gesture of turning the wheel of the Buddha's doctrine, while her fourteen other hands hold many of her characteristic symbolic implements, including an axe, a discus, a conch, a water vessel, and a palm-leaf book. Multi-armed deities like this one indicate the popularity of esoteric Buddhism in Indonesia from the late 800s.