Votive tablet with seated Buddha flanked by the disciples Shariputra and Maudgalyayana

Votive Tablets

Buddhist votive tablets were made by pressing damp clay into molds, then removing and baking it. Votive tablets would have been rather inexpensive. Pious people could buy them and have them deposited in or under stupas or other temple buildings as offerings. Pilgrims sometimes carried them, and so votive tablets are sometimes found far from where they were made.

Two of the votive tablets here refer to the great Mahabodhi Temple at Bodhgaya in eastern India, which marks the site where the Buddha achieved Enlightenment. Each shows a seated Buddha in the so-called earth-touching gesture that came to represent the Enlightenment. The Buddha is sheltered by the Mahabodhi Temple, recognizable by the characteristic tower over the arched niche in which the Buddha sits.