Standing Buddha

Shwezigon, Pagan

This is one of four colossal gilded bronze Buddhas, each twelve feet in height and arranged in separate shrines around the periphery of the stupa. The largest surviving bronzes in Pagan, they represent the Four "Historical" Buddhas. All four are similar in appearance. The right hand is raised in a spread-fingered version of abhaya mudra (fear not), while the left extends in a lesser-known mudra called tarjani, or "warding off evil" (identification per BuddhaNet).