The standing, now headless, Buddha statue in the sanctum, of brick and stucco on a semi-circular lotus pedestal, was flanked by two pilasters and a torana also supported by pilasters (in both cases only one of these vertical structures has survived). The height of the statue with the pedestal would have been 13.6 meters (the tallest on the island), with then statue itself rising to approximately 12.5 meters. It is in the samabanga or erect posture, without any bends. An earlier photograph includes a small figure of a lion below the lower edge of the robe. A lion figure is found between the two feet in some statues in Mathura (India) and was symbolic of the "lion of the Sakya clan" (the Buddha was a member of that clan); the small ornamental stucco figures are included in a frieze at the bottom of the lotus pedestal (not shown here). Provision had been made for an ambulatory passage behind the statue.
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