Maitreya - General Description

General Description

Maitreya is typically pictured seated, with either both feet on the ground or crossed at the ankles, on a throne, waiting for his time. He is dressed in the clothes of either a Bhiksu or Indian royalty. As a bodhisattva, he would usually be standing and dressed in jewels. Usually he wears a small stupa in his headdress that represents the stupa of the Buddha Sakyamuni's relics to help him identify it when his turn comes to lay claim to his succession, and can be holding a dharmachakra resting on a lotus. A khata is always tied around his waist as a girdle.

In the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, in the first centuries CE in northern India, Maitreya is represented as a Central Asian or northern Indian nobleman, holding a "water phial" (Sanskrit: Kumbha) in his left hand. Sometimes this is a "wisdom urn" (Sanskrit: Bumpa). He is flanked by his two acolytes, the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu.

Maitreya-samiti was an extensive Buddhist play in Pre-Islamic Central Asia The Maitreyavyakarana (in Sataka form) in Central Asia and Anagatavamsa in South India also mentioned him.

Some Buddhists wished to stay with him after death. I-kuan Tao have different descriptions of him.