Burmese Gilt Wooden Image of the Earth Goddess Vasundhara (Wathundaye)

This figure of the Earth Goddess Vasundhara or Wathundaye as she is known in Burma, has been carved from a single piece of wood and decorated with thayo work (bands of moulded lacquer relief work) and with red, black and white polychrome and then gilded with applied gold leaf.

She stands barefoot on a plinth, and is shown wringing water from her long hair. She wears courtly Burmese dress.

By tradition, when the Buddha was meditating under the Bodhi tree, Mara, the Evil One, appeared to tempt the Buddha, who cried out for assistance. He placed his right hand to the ground to summon the earth to bear witness to his good deeds from his previous lives. The Earth Goddess emerged and placed herself before the Buddha exclaiming that the Buddha had fulfilled the necessary conditions to reach enlightenment. Her hair was soaked from the water poured on the earth that symbolised all the Buddha’s good works, which she wrung, releasing a wave of water which sent Mara and his army fleeing to avoid the flood. The tradition of Vasundhara does not appear in Indian Pali or Sanskrit literature but is popular among Buddhists in Burma, Thailand and Cambodia.

In Burma, Vasundhara is shown either standing or sitting.

See Schafer (2014, cover) and Fraser-Lu & Stadtner (2015, p. 181) for related images of Burmese Vasundhara figures.