Buddha's Head (detail) showing pigment
Museum no. A.98-1927

The figure would originally have been painted in bright colours. There are some traces of those pigments still remaining on the lips, eyes and eyebrows. The Urna, sometimes referred to as the 'third eye', located in the centre of the forehead would most likely have been embellished with a jewel of some kind; there is in fact a visible depression where this jewel would have been inlaid. It symbolises wisdom and is one of the thirty-two 'lakshana' or special physical and symbolic characteristics of the Buddha.