Exquisite rendering of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the future Buddha of this world, at the Berkeley Museum of Art. It is said that Maitreya will be the fifth Buddha of the present kalpa, and that his arrival will occur after the teachings of the Buddha are no longer practiced. His arrival signifies the end of the middle time, i.e. the time between the fourth Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, and the fifth Buddha, Maitreya, which is viewed as a low point of human existence. [NOTE: Mongolian, 19th century. Gilt bronze, semi-precious stones].