The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.131

c11.s1.131

Neither shall we dwell upon the hundreds of statues which decorate this *stûpa* of the « Many Buddhas » (for such would be the meaning of the word Boro-Budur) : but here the reason for our abstention is quite different. They were, in fact, classified long ago, and W. de Humboldt proposed to recognize among them, in accordance with Hodgson's Nepalese drawings, the images of the five Dhyâni-Buddhas. The identification has since been generally admitted, and in principle we see no reason for contesting it : at the most it would need to be pressed further and completed. The arrangement of the groups must in any case be remade. Among these manifold replicas with heads generally well treated and expressive, but effeminate and bloated bodies, all seated in *padmâsana* and only differentiated by the gestures of the hands, we must, in fact, distinguish :