Indonesian Seated Figure of Ken Dedes or Prajnaparamita

Eyes lowered, hands busy, nowhere else to be.

This seated figure of Ken Dedes or Prajnaparamita was carved in river stone in Mojokerto, Indonesia, in the 20th century. Prajnaparamita personifies the perfection of wisdom in Buddhism, and a celebrated East Javanese statue of her is traditionally linked to the queen Ken Dedes. She sits cross-legged on a double lotus before an arched back slab, hands raised in a teaching gesture, crowned and heavily jeweled. A lotus stem climbs beside her left arm. Fifty-four inches high.

Wisdom, it turns out, sits very straight.