Buddha Sheltered by Muchalinda

This compelling figure of the Buddha is seated on the coils of a naga with finely-incised scales, its fragmentary seven-headed snake-hood sheltering Buddha, who is meditating in samadhi pose.  His face exudes a deeply meditative expression with closed eyes below ridged eyebrows, broad nose, and a slight smile appearing on his full lips.  His elongated earlobes suspending heavy bud-shaped ear ornaments, and his hair is arranged in rows of tight, round curls and surmounted by a tiered conical usnisa.

This subject is found more requently in Cambodia than anywhere else in Asia.  In both stone and bronze, such sculpture was common during the Angkor Wat period, despite its being an epoch when Vishnuism dominated official religion, and particularly during the Bayon period, when the Buddhist Jayavarman VII was king.