Tibetan Avalokithesvara Flanks By Attendants with Dhyani Buddhas in Mandorla

One figure stands at the center. Seven others attend him.

This gilded copper repousse panel comes from Tibet and dates to the 18th century. It shows Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, standing on a lotus and flanked by two attendants, with the Dhyani Buddhas seated in the mandorla around him. Panels like this were made for Tibetan temples and shrines, where monks and worshippers used them as a focus for prayer and merit. A border of scrolling roundels arches overhead, and the gilding gives way to darker copper in places. Nearly twenty-four inches high.

All this, in a panel one inch deep.