127 Origin and Spread Of BhadrāSana BuddhaS thrOughOut SOutheaSt aSia Chapter 11 New Perspectives on the Origin and Spread of Bhadrāsana Buddhas throughout Southeast Asia (7th–8th Centuries CE) Nicolas Revire Abstract Images of seated Buddhas with legs pendant (Skt. bhadrāsana) 1 were frequently found all over Buddhist asia during the 1st millennium Ce. Bhadrāsana Buddha images chiefly display two types of hand gestures, the teaching gesture with one hand (vitarkamudrā) or some variant gestures of “turning the Wheel of the Law” with both hands (dharmacakramudrā or dharmacakrapra-vartanamudrā). the spread of such Buddha images with one mudrā or another is uneven in Buddhist asia. While the combination of this posture with the vitarkamudrā is found regularly in mainland and maritime Southeast Asia as well as in Central and east asia, it is rather exceptional in the indian subcontinent [fig. 11.1]. 2 Conversely, the combination with the dharmacakramudrā occurs, mostly, in the north of South asia as well as in maritime Southeast Asia. It is not found in Mainland Southeast Asia or in East Asia. Introduction this paper mainly focuses on Bhadrāsana Buddha images with the vitarkamudrā and attempts to connect its origin to a certain important Buddha icon from india. 3 While investigating the different areas outside South asia in which this iconography is found, the author explores the possibility of Central and east Asian models having played an important part in transmitting it to Southeast Asia during the influential tang period (618–907). By the 7th and 8th centuries, it seems that local Southeast asian styles had not asserted themselves much indeed, at least not enough to resist incoming models. therefore, one might search in tang China and along the Silk road for a possible Bhadrāsana Buddha “prototype” in vitarkamudrā or, more accurately, a “missing link” to explain subsequent developments in Southeast Asian imagery. A Speciic and Widespread Iconography in Southeast Asia possibly one of the earliest Southeast asian images of its kind, generally dated to the 6th–7th century, is the pendant-legged Buddha said to be from the village of Sòn tho, trà Vinh province, in southern Vietnam (Malleret 1963, vol. 4: 178–9, pl. 34) 4 [fig. 11.2]. this small stone Buddha image shows some affinities in both style and iconography to those found in central thailand (dupont 1959: 279; revire 2008: 100, fn. 257). although the right hand is now broken, it must have been raised to display either the single “teaching” gesture (vitarkamudrā) or the “assurance” hand gesture (abhayamudrā). Contrarily, the left hand, in a lower position, rests on the thigh and seems to hold the final part of the robe. Pierre Dupont has remarked that this unusual mudrā “does not conform to the indian tradition” (1959: 279). from where could this mudrā and āsana have drawn its inspiration? nancy tingley evokes the fact that the Chinese monk Xuan-zang, after his return to Chang’an (Xi’an) in 645 from his travels to india, produced a large number of terracotta tablets of different motifs, “one of which was a Buddha with legs pendant”. She then goes on to suggest that this particular posture (bhadrāsana) may have been inspired 127 Connecting Empires 11.indd 127 8/11/2012 3:29:32 AM