A PYU GILT BRONZE HEAD OF BUDDHA

A PYU GILT BRONZE HEAD OF BUDDHA, BURMA (NOW MYANMAR), 8TH / 9TH CENTURY, with elongated earlobes, the tightly curled hair with domed usnisa, mounted 9cm high Provenance: Collection of a deceased diplomat, thence by descent. For a more complete, but ungilded, closely related Pyu figure of Buddha in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, see inv. no. 2006.53. The Pyu kingdoms flourished in Northern and Central Burma for about 1000 years until their primary capital, Halin, was sacked by the Chinese in 832.