Shakyamuni Buddha Statue | 13.5″ Gold Gilded | Handmade Nepal

This 13.5″ Shakyamuni Buddha statue is fully fire gilded in 24K gold — the entire surface permanently bonded in real 24K gold using the traditional fire gilding method, producing the warm, deep luster that will never tarnish. The statue was handcrafted in Patan, Nepal by master artisans of the Shakya caste using the traditional lost wax sculpting method, with fine hand-carved engraving throughout the robes and lotus pedestal. The Shakya caste artisans of Patan are the traditional masters of gilded lost wax sculpture in the Kathmandu Valley, and have supplied Tibetan monasteries with sacred sculpture of this quality for centuries.

Shakyamuni — the Buddha of our current kalpa — was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama into the Shakya royal family in Lumbini, Nepal in the 6th century BCE, the son of King Suddhodana. Growing increasingly disillusioned with the insulation of palace life from the reality of suffering, he renounced his royal inheritance at age 29 and left to live as a forest renunciant — the event known in Buddhist tradition as the Great Renunciation. After years of intensive meditation practice he achieved full enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, India, and spent the remainder of his life teaching the Dharma to sentient beings.

Gold Shakyamuni Statue Mudras

The right hand displays the Bhumisparsha mudra — the earth-touching gesture — draped over the right knee with the palm facing inward and the fingers extended downward, lightly touching the ground. This is the gesture Shakyamuni displayed at the pivotal moment before his enlightenment, when the demon Mara appeared beneath the Bodhi tree to challenge his right to attain Buddhahood. Mara deployed every means at his disposal — the temptation of his daughters, the terror of his armies — and finally issued the direct challenge: by what authority does this being claim the merit to achieve enlightenment? Shakyamuni answered without words, reaching down to touch the earth and calling the earth deity to witness the accumulated merit of countless lifetimes. The earth bore witness, Mara was defeated, and Shakyamuni passed into enlightenment. The Bhumisparsha mudra is that moment, held permanently in bronze and gold. Explore the full Bhumisparsha mudra meaning and symbolism in our complete guide to Shakyamuni statues.

His left hand rests in the lap in the Dhyana mudra — the meditation gesture, palm open and facing upward — with an alms bowl resting in the palm. The alms bowl symbolizes the Buddha’s renunciation and his entry onto the monastic path, and is understood to hold the three nectars that counteract the three poisons of greed, hatred, and ignorance.