A four-armed Avalokiteshvara Sadaksari, lacquered and gilded wood sculpture, China, Ming dynasty, the Bodhisattva seated in dhyanasana, wearing a robe revealing his chest, adorned with multiple ornaments (bracelets, necklaces, earrings) as well as a crown with 8 points, the one in the centre containing an effigy of Amithaba, his black hair raised in a bun, with a lock falling on each of his shoulders, two of his hands joined in anjali mudra, the other two adopting the karana mudra, 57.5 cm high (restorations)

The fact that this representation of Avalokiteshvara may originally have incorporated, as is customary, a rosary (mani) in one hand and a lotus (padme) in the other, makes its identification with its Sadaskari form (literally "six-syllable form") relevant, i.e., as the personification of the famous six-syllable mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum", referring to the path of full awareness and enlightenment.

The sculpture has a consecration cavity below the base, the contents of which were extracted by Danielle Etienne, supervised by Jérôme Ducor. The cavity included:

- fragments of blue silk book covers, one bearing the title of the Medicine Buddha sutra: 藥師琉璃光如來本願功德經 (Yaoshi liuli guang rulai benyuan gongde jing)

- two small suites of tightly wound calligraphic papers, and a third that has been unrolled. The latter contains seven pages of calligraphy in Tibetan

- a two-part leporello album with the text of the Lotus Sutra: 觀世音菩薩普門品經 (Guanshiyin pusa pu men pin jing), with text and illustrations

- A leporello album including a Taoist text referring to the Great Bear Writings: 太上玄靈北斗本命延生經 (Taishang xuanling beidou benming yansheng zhenjing) or 北斗經 (Beidou jing), with text and an illustration

A carbon-14 test was performed on 30 June 2010, at ETH Zurich, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, dating the sculpture to the years 1302-1414.

A four-armed Avalokiteshvara Sadaksari, lacquered and gilded wood sculpture, China, Ming dynasty, the Bodhisattva seated in dhyanasana, wearing a robe revealing his chest, adorned with multiple ornaments (bracelets, necklaces, earrings) as well as a crown with 8 points, the one in the centre containing an effigy of Amithaba, his black hair raised in a bun, with a lock falling on each of his shoulders, two of his hands joined in anjali mudra, the other two adopting the karana mudra, 57.5 cm high (restorations)

The fact that this representation of Avalokiteshvara may originally have incorporated, as is customary, a rosary (mani) in one hand and a lotus (padme) in the other, makes its identification with its Sadaskari form (literally "six-syllable form") relevant, i.e., as the personification of the famous six-syllable mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum", referring to the path of full awareness and enlightenment.

The sculpture has a consecration cavity below the base, the contents of which were extracted by Danielle Etienne, supervised by Jérôme Ducor. The cavity included:

- fragments of blue silk book covers, one bearing the title of the Medicine Buddha sutra: 藥師琉璃光如來本願功德經 (Yaoshi liuli guang rulai benyuan gongde jing)

- two small suites of tightly wound calligraphic papers, and a third that has been unrolled. The latter contains seven pages of calligraphy in Tibetan

- a two-part leporello album with the text of the Lotus Sutra: 觀世音菩薩普門品經 (Guanshiyin pusa pu men pin jing), with text and illustrations

- A leporello album including a Taoist text referring to the Great Bear Writings: 太上玄靈北斗本命延生經 (Taishang xuanling beidou benming yansheng zhenjing) or 北斗經 (Beidou jing), with text and an illustration

A carbon-14 test was performed on 30 June 2010, at ETH Zurich, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, dating the sculpture to the years 1302-1414.

Bodhisattva:

Overall wear to the surface

Restorations and regilding to many areas (fingers, arms, legs/feet, etc.). The most important restoration runs right along the Bodhisattva's legs and feet

The Bodhisattva may have been completely redecorated during the Qing dynasty (addition of a layer of cinnabar lacquer and gilding on top)

Some cracks, especially one on the right wrist of the anjali mudra arm

Some chips

Remnants of blue and red polychromy

Some surface scratches

Some lacks to the surface, especially at the back of the sculpture

Relics:

Please note that the relics were restored by Danielle Etienne, and that we have photographs of the restoration process of the various relics, as well as photographs of the extraction of the relics

Lotus Sutra:

In two parts

Overall wear to the surfaces

Some stains, including several on the cover

Some tears

Some loss to surface

Writings of the Ursa Major:

No cover

Overall wear to the surface

Some tears

Some stains

Medicine Sutra:

Multiple fragments of cover. Flakes. Holes, tears, damage

Tibetan papers:

Overall wear to the surfaces

Some tears

Some stains

Some creases