Prajnaparamita Statue | 8.75″ | Fully 24K Gold Gilded | Handmade Nepal

This 8.75″ Prajnaparamita statue is fully fire-gilded in 24K gold and cast in copper alloy using the traditional lost wax method by Shakya caste artisans in Patan, Nepal. The Shakya artisans of Patan have practiced the lost wax sculpting tradition for many centuries and have long been the preferred source of sacred statues for Tibetan monasteries. The buyer of this statue can rest assured they have acquired a piece of monastic quality, handmade in Nepal. Upon request, the crown and jewels can be adorned with turquoise and red coral stones before shipping at no additional charge.

Prajnaparamita (Sanskrit: Prajñāpāramitā — “Perfection of Wisdom”) is the embodiment of the Prajnaparamita Sutra — the vast body of Mahayana literature that expounds the wisdom of emptiness (shunyata) as the foundation of the Buddhist path. She is revered as the “Mother of All Buddhas” — the primordial wisdom from which all enlightened beings arise — and one of the most important deities in both the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. In her personified form she is depicted as a golden goddess, four-armed and serene, embodying the inseparable union of wisdom and compassionate activity that is the very nature of enlightenment.

Prajnaparamita Statue Features

This statue depicts Prajnaparamita in her standard four-armed form. Her upper right hand holds a vajra — the thunderbolt symbol of indestructible skillful means (upaya), the compassionate activity that is inseparable from wisdom. Her upper left hand holds a copy of the Prajnaparamita Sutra — the text she embodies and of which she is the living presence. Her lower two hands rest in the Dhyana mudra (meditation), folded in her lap in the gesture of deep meditative equipoise. She is seated in full lotus posture on a single lotus pedestal. Her hair is blue, fixed in the ushnisha topknot, and she wears the crown and jeweled ornaments of a Bodhisattva.

The union of wisdom and skillful means — Prajnaparamita holding the sutra and vajra simultaneously — is the central symbolic statement of this iconographic form: that emptiness and compassionate activity are inseparable, and that their union is the nature of enlightenment itself. Upon request, turquoise and red coral stones can be set into the crown and jewelry before shipping at no additional charge. Turquoise combines the purity of blue — the color of the Buddhas — with the active readiness of green. Red coral pays tribute to Amitabha Buddha, and meditation on red is said to transmute the poison of attachment into the wisdom of discernment. Explore the full Prajnaparamita statue collection or learn more about the Buddhist pantheon.