Prajnaparamita book cover

This elaborately carved book cover once protected the Mahayana Buddhist manuscript known as the Prajnaparamita sutra (The Perfection of Wisdom). The text describes the impermanence of all phenomena, including the notion of selfhood. Personifying this transcendent wisdom is the multiarmed goddess Prajnaparamita, the mother of all buddhas. Shown at center, she is seated on a grand throne, lifted by a half-man, half-bird kinnara. The goddess holds a book in her upper-left hand and a vajra (the ritual implement that signifies awakening) in her upper-right hand.