Seated Buddha, probably Yaoshifo (Bhaiṣajyaguru, Medicine Master Buddha)

The Medicine Master Buddha (Yàoshīfó 藥師佛) is an important healing deity in East Asia. This work was originally gilded but probably lost its gold coating in a fire. It may have been enshrined in a monastery or the home of a wealthy family, perhaps part of a trio of buddhas. Identification as the Medicine Master Buddha is speculative but based on a standard representation in which one hand rests on the lap and holds a small jar of medicine. Look at the proper right hand—the tips of the middle fingers are broken, and the breakage pattern suggests that the fingers supported something, perhaps the medicine jar. Furthermore, this buddha often held aloft the seed of the myrobalan fruit (Terminalia chebula), respected as a healing plant. The raised left hand seems to once have grasped something, possibly a lost seed. Although this work was created in Northern China when it was ruled by the Liao [LEEOW] Dynasty (916–1125 CE) of the Khitan people, it follows the influential Chinese Buddhist art style of the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE)—the hair is in tight “snail-shell” curls, the face rounded with three rolls of skin on the neck, and the robes hang naturally. But what is the shape under the buddha that the robes cover? A large lotus blossom with upturned petals, the typical seat of a buddha in a transcendent realm.