What does the Buddha's hand gesture signify? The great British art quiz

Buddha in Bhumisparsa Mudra, unknown artist. Photograph: Dani Tagen/Horniman Museum and Gardens

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK sets the questions.

Today, our questions are set by Horniman Museum and Gardens. The Horniman has collections across world cultures, music and the natural environment. The anthropology collection comprises approximately 80,000 objects from around the world – more than 3,000 of them displayed in the World Gallery – and provides a path into understanding the everyday lives and beliefs of people from all over the world, including ourselves.

You can see art from Horniman Museum and Gardens on Art UK here. Find out more on the Horniman Museum and Gardens website.

1. 

   Museum founder Frederick Horniman was raised in which religion?

   1. Methodism

   2. Quakerism

   3. Judaism

   4. Catholicism

2. 

   This painting shows the Battle of Adwa (1896), which marked the decisive victory for Ethiopia against the forces of which invading country?

   1. Britain

   2. Germany

   3. Italy

   4. France

3. 

   This wooden carving of a shaman was made by Simeon Sdiihldaa, one of the earliest named artists working on the Pacific north-west coast of North America in the early 19th century. Which Indigenous nation did Sdiihldaa belong to?

   1. Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw

   2. Haida

   3. Tlingit

   4. Tsimshian

4. 

   This bronze figure of the historical Buddha was made in what is now northern Thailand, probably between the 12th and 15th centuries. The figure is seated showing the bhūmisparśa mudra (mudra means hand gesture). What does it signify?

   1. The Buddha sets in motion the wheel of teaching, or dharma

   2. The Buddha is pushing away the Demon King, Mara

   3. The Buddha is calling the Earth as witness

   4. Having achieved enlightenment, Gautama Buddha is about to stand up.

5. 

   This artwork by a Lagos-based artist (unknown to the Horniman) was painted in the late 1980s. It features Lakunle, a central character in which famous Wole Soyinka play?

   1. Death and the King’s Horseman

   2. Kongi’s Harvest

   3. A Dance of the Forests

   4. The Lion and the Jewel

6. 

   This figure of Queen Victoria was made in Lagos by an unknown carver in the late 19th century. What, about her appearance, is surprisingly accurate?

   1. Her royal headgear

   2. Her sash

   3. Her very small boots

   4. All of the above

7. 

   This sculpture of Ogum is from a Candomblé altar. The Candomblé religion developed from the traditions of enslaved African people in which country?

   1. United States

   2. Cuba

   3. Haiti

   4. Brazil

8. 

   Sculptures of this type, called maramarua, are used in the complex malangan ceremonies in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. What are malangan?

   1. Competitive gift-giving events

   2. Mortuary ceremonies and feasts to honour the dead

   3. Festivals that honour the ancestors

   4. Celebrations for the annual yam harvest

Solutions

1:B - The Hornimans were a Quaker family who made their fortune in the tea trade. This upbringing would have helped shape Frederick’s concern for the poor and his commitment to education, as well as his interest in collecting. His father – nicknamed "Honest John" – gave much of his wealth to charity, and in 1901 Frederick gave his museum, gardens and collections to "the people in perpetuity" to help them discover the world.

 Image: Frederick Horniman, 1891, Malcolm Stewart (1829-1916), Horniman Museum and Gardens, 2:C - The Kingdom of Italy engaged in a series of attempts to establish colonies in the Horn of Africa between 1882 and 1941. The Ethiopian victory at the Battle of Adwa marked the end of the First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895-96). Adwa Victory Day is celebrated every year on 2 March as a public holiday in Ethiopia. Image:

 Battle of Adowa, unknown artist © the copyright holder, Horniman Museum and Gardens, 3:B - The homeland of the Haida nation is Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the northern coast of British Columbia, just south of Alaska. The indigenous peoples of the north-west coast produced one of the most sophisticated and developed artistic and craft traditions of any culture. To this day they decorate houses, tools, canoes and clothes, and continue to produce monumental sculptures in the form of totem-poles and house-fronts. Image: 

Shaman or Spirit of Water, Simeon Sdiihldaa (1799-1889), Horniman Museum and Galleries, 4:C - In Buddhist teaching, Mara the Demon King and his forces tried to unseat the Buddha from under the bodhi tree. Mara claimed that this was his rightful place and demanded that Buddha produce a witness to confirm his enlightenment. Also known as the Earth-witness, or Earth-touching mudra, this shows the moment that Buddha called the Earth as witness, and the demon Mara vanished.

 Image: Buddha in Bhūmisparśa Mudra, unknown artist, Horniman Museum and Gardens, 5:D - The Lion and the Jewel was first performed in 1959, and published in 1962, two years after Nigerian Independence. The play is set in the 1950s in a Nigerian village, Ilujinle. Lakunle is a young schoolteacher who is impatient to modernise Ilujinle in line with his experience of living in Lagos. The play explores the tensions circulating this aspiration for change, both within the village and for Lakunle himself. Image: Lakinle, 20th century, unknown artist, © the copyright holder, Horniman Museum and Gardens, 6:D - This figure is a well-observed representation of Queen Victoria, likely to have been based on one of the many images of her which circulated in west Africa at the time of her golden (1887) and diamond (1897) jubilees. This and similar figures have been attributed to Christian Aku communities who emigrated to south-eastern Nigeria – their ancestral Yoruba homeland – from Sierra Leone in the late 19th century. 
Image: Queen Victoria (1819-1901), 1880s, unknown artist, Horniman Museum and Gardens, 7:D - Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religion that was introduced to Brazil by enslaved West Africans in the early 19th century. It is a syncretic religion, incorporating elements from a number of sources, predominantly Yoruba, Catholic and to a lesser degree Indigenous American. Ogum (sometimes spelled Ogun) is one of the principal Yoruba-inspired Orishas, or gods. He is associated with warriors, hunters, blacksmiths and iron. His symbol is the sword. Image: Ogum (Iron Deity), before 1998, unknown artist © the copyright holder, Horniman Museum and Gardens, 8:B - Malangan ceremonies last from a few months to several years. Their purpose is to send the souls of the deceased to the realm of the dead, where they will become ancestor spirits. The soul resides in the maramarua before leaving to become an ancestor. In the final mortuary ceremony these sculptures are displayed for only a few hours before being burned or deposited in the forest to decay. Image: 
Malagan Funerary Post (Maramarua Type), late 19th century, unknown artist, Horniman Museum and Gardens

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   Congratulations! You have achieved enlightenment

2. 3 and above.

   You are sitting under the bodhi tree. Enlightenment will come …

3. 0 and above.

   It's a mortuary ceremony for you