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The statue of Tara is cast in one piece of solid bronze, that has been covered in gold. When new, she must have been dazzling when she was seen under the Sri Lankan sun. And even now, when her gilding is rather worn, and she stands in the cool light of Bloomsbury, she still has a compelling lustre. She is about three quarters life-size, and she stands, as she always would have, on a plinth, so that as you look up at her, she benignly gazes down at you. Her face tells you at once that she comes from south Asia. But that's not the first thing that strikes visitors as they look at her.
這尊度母雕像由整塊純銅打造而成，外面鍍一層金。剛完工時它一定曾在斯里蘭卡的陽光下光彩奪目。如今雖然鍍金已經磨去，照射它的也只有博物館的冷光，但它依然散發出迷人的光澤。雕像約有真人的四分之三大小，立于基座之上，這是度母的一貫造型。當你仰望她時，她也仁慈地注視著你。銅像的面部特征能讓人一眼看出她來自南亞。但這并不是最吸引參觀者眼球的地方。
She's got a quite impossible hour-glass figure, and her upper body is completely naked. Her full and perfectly rounded breasts float above a tiny wasp waist, while below, a flimsy sarong is draped in gleaming folds, which cling to and beguilingly reveal her shapely lower body.
因為她擁有堪稱不可思議的沙漏形身材，上半身幾乎全裸，纖細的蜂腰上是豐滿圓潤的胸部。髖部則圍著一條輕薄的紗籠，光澤閃耀，突顯下半身的迷人線條，令人陶醉。
So you will hardly be surprised to learn that when Tara arrived at the British Museum, from Ceylon as it was then known, in the 1830s, she was seen as so dangerously erotic and voluptuous that she was at once put into the store-rooms, and kept there for 30 years, visible only to specialist scholars on request.
十九世紀三十年代，初抵博物館的度母雕像立刻被放進儲藏室保存，近30年的時間內，只有提出申請的專家學者才能觀看。也許會有人認為公開展覽這樣的雕像有傷風化。
