Tang Marble Standing Ananda

This is a marble sculpture of Ananda standing on a lotus platform. He has a broad face, with plump cheeks and a round chin, coherent to the classical Tang style. The colour red on his sanghati is well preserved, while showing reasonable traces of aging.
Ananda is traditionally depicted as a handsome young man. As the wisest disciple of the Buddha, he is the one who records all his master’s teachings. Therefore he is always depicted holding his hands across each other in front of his waist, paying attention to every word of the Buddha.

In Buddhist art, a common way to construct a scene is to adopt the “1+2” mode, which puts the main figure at the centre and two disciples or subsidiary figures on its two sides. It is extremely rare to have a complete set of a trio since many of them have separated along the ages, rendering this Tang marble trio even more precious. – (HK.2025c)