PATAN MUSEUM EXHIBITION
Height: 83 cm / Width: 50 cm / Depth: 20 cm
This relief in Magnolia Champaca wood was part of the exhibition at the Patan Museum, “The Revival of Newar Woodcarving,” 2024.
A nearly identical relief was created by the same artist in 2025 and was awarded the First Prize for Traditional Sculpture by the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts.
It depicts the life of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, from his birth to his attainment of nirvana.
Siddhartha Gautama, who lived around the 5th–6th century BCE, gathered disciples who followed his path and preserved his teachings — later known as Buddhism. The alleged place of his birth, Lumbini in southern Nepal, remains one of the most revered Buddhist pilgrimage sites.
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In the lower left scene, Queen Mayadevi, wife of the king of the Shakya kingdom and mother of the future Buddha, dreams of a white elephant — a Bodhisattva descending to earth — entering her side, foretelling the coming of Siddhartha into the world.
Just above, the birth scene shows the Buddha being born in a garden at Lumbini, while deities shower flowers upon the child as he takes his first steps.
The next scene illustrates the period of extreme asceticism. At the age of 29, Siddhartha leaves his palace and discovers the suffering of the world, which had until then been hidden from him. Renouncing worldly life, he becomes a wandering hermit practicing severe austerities in search of enlightenment.
Realizing that neither indulgence nor extreme deprivation leads to wisdom, he chooses the Middle Way, symbolized by the scene where he accepts food again.
At the center, Siddhartha is shown meditating beneath a banyan tree near Bodhgaya, besieged by demons representing the poisons of the mind — negative emotions and desires.
Above, he attains enlightenment at the age of 35, touching the earth as a witness — the gesture known as the Bhumisparsha mudrā.
In the upper right scene, the Buddha teaches the Dharma — the path to overcome suffering and reach liberation.
The scene below shows the milkmaid Sujata offering a bowl of food to the Buddha, ending his six years of asceticism. According to legend, she mistook him for a tree spirit who had granted her wish to have a child.
Below, the Buddha sits in meditation in the forest, tended and protected by a monkey and an elephant.
In the lower right section, the Buddha returns to earth in a divine procession after visiting his mother in heaven to share his teaching of deliverance.
At the upper center, the scene of the Mahāparinirvāṇa represents the Buddha’s passing into nirvana, surrounded by mourning disciples, including his closest followers, Sariputra and Maudgalyayana.
At the very top stands the stupa of Swayambhunath in Kathmandu — a personal homage by the Nepalese artist.
The mantra inscribed on the relief is that of Shakyamuni Buddha:
“Om muni muni maha muni shakya muni svaha”
(“Om wise one, wise one, greatly wise one, sage of the Shakyas, hail!”)
