I recently came into possession of an antique lead amulet from Burma. I have many wonderful plans for this exquisite deity, but I'm not sure who he/she is! At first, I thought perhaps he was Mahakala, the protector of monasteries since there are skulls beneath his feet, but Mahakala is always depicted with a fierce, tooth baring grimace. All of the images I found of the Buddha holding a sword, have the sword of justice held high in his right hand, not at his side. Another thing that is interesting about this amulet, is that the deity appears to be cradling a infant in the left arm leading me to speculate that this may be a female Buddha.
When I received this spectacular amulet, it had a wonderful patina on it which has now been removed thanks to the mold making process we use. I apologize in advance to all of the antique amulet collectors for doing this, but it had to be done for the sake of art :)
If you happen to know the name of this deity, or if you have a good guess, please leave me a note in the comments section. I want to be as accurate as possible in the descriptions that will accompany my ceramic pieces created from this beautiful object.
There are more photos posted of this amulet, including some close ups of it here if you would like to check them out.
Thank you! :)
