Handcrafted Black Granite Bhumisparsha Buddha Statue, 36 in

The earth-touching gesture, and how to read it

The bhumisparsha mudra fixes a single moment. Seated under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha reaches his right hand past his knee and touches the ground, calling the earth to witness his enlightenment. Everything else in the figure follows from that one movement: the right arm falls long and loose over the right knee with the fingertips just meeting the plinth, while the left hand stays flat in the lap, palm upward, holding the stillness the right hand has just left.

The legs are locked in padmasana, the robe crosses the left shoulder and leaves the right one bare, and the face remains completely at rest. No strain anywhere is the whole point of the gesture. Because the mudra is asymmetric, the piece is composed to be approached from the front rather than circled, which is why it sits so naturally at the end of a hall.

Why black granite suits this particular mudra

Black granite is one of a very small number of natural stones that will take a true mirror polish. Its crystal structure is very fine and completely non-porous, so the surface closes rather than absorbs, and on a seated figure that matters more than it would on an angular piece. Light travels the shoulder, the collarbone and the pleats of the robe as one long unbroken highlight instead of scattering, and that is what gives the statue its presence in a room.

The colour is jet-black through the block, not a coating, so a re-polish years from now brings back the same tone. The stone is dense, hard and unaffected by rain, which is why the granite temple tradition of southern India has carved seated figures like this one for well over a thousand years. If you would rather the piece absorbed light than reflected it, the same form can be finished honed or matte instead.

36 inches, and where it actually fits

At 36 inches tall the seated figure spans roughly 28 inches across the knees and 20 inches front to back, and the whole piece including its stepped plinth weighs about 280 kg. That is a floor statue, not a shelf statue. It works at the end of an entrance hall against a plain pale wall, where the black reads as one clean silhouette, or in a living room where the seated eye line lands just below a standing adult.

Leave about a metre of clear floor in front of it so the earth-touching hand is not crowded. A ground floor on stone or tile takes the load with no preparation; on an upper floor, check the span with your builder first. The stepped plinth is carved as part of the piece, so it arrives already raised and needs no separate pedestal.

Make it yours

Height, the proportion of the plinth, the finish, how deeply the robe pleats are cut and whether the face is left softly modelled or crisply defined are all decided in the brief, and we work through those choices with you before anything is cut. The piece is then carved for you by the master sculptors we work with in Rajasthan, and we follow it from the block through to delivery at your door.

A fresh commission at this size takes 8-12 weeks. If your date is tighter than that, tell us anyway. There may be a Buddha in this stone already finished and waiting, in which case we will ask and send you photographs of the actual piece before you decide.