Portable Shrine with the Buddha Shakyamuni Preaching his First Sermon

Portable Shrine with the Buddha Shakyamuni Preaching his First Sermon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Buddha holds his hands in the teaching gesture (dharma chakra mudra). To his left sit two of the five monks who heard his sermon in the deer park at Sarnath. The distinctive flat cut drapery and green schist typify late Gandharan portable images that circulated from Kashmir to Khotan in Central Asia.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portable Shrine with the Buddha Shakyamuni Preaching his First SermonPortable Shrine with the Buddha Shakyamuni Preaching his First SermonPortable Shrine with the Buddha Shakyamuni Preaching his First SermonPortable Shrine with the Buddha Shakyamuni Preaching his First SermonPortable Shrine with the Buddha Shakyamuni Preaching his First Sermon

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.