Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven

Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This panel depicts a grandly decorated stupa with the Buddha at its entrance, his hand raised to grant protection. The scene represents his descent, at the conclusion of the rainy season, from Trayastrimsa Heaven—the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods presided over by Indra. The Buddha descended a golden ladder to the jubilation of devotees, seen here kneeling. This panel, likely once brilliantly polychromed, belongs to a small group of narrative reliefs that provide the greatest source of visual evidence of the appearance of these structures in the third and fourth centuries.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa HeavenDrum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa HeavenDrum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa HeavenDrum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa HeavenDrum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.