It is not unusual with an art history publication of this nature, which analyses a corpus of medieval sculpture, for the sculptures addressed to be found in a single public or private collection, or even one archaeological site. The sculptures addressed in this publication, however, are presently located at numerous locations, both within Indonesia and across the world.

This book has attempted to include as many as possible of the accessible figurative sculptures that exhibit textile patterns on their dress. It does not assume to have located, from amongst all the reserve and private collections worldwide, all such sculptures. Many relevant sculptures identified during the course of the underlying research have also been omitted where they either represent a duplication of others included or where there exists any doubt as to their true provenance.

The sculptures addressed here vary in importance, from some that have become iconic images of their time and place, such as the Prajñāpāramitā in the Museum Nasional Indonesia, to others that are almost unknown and which may not have been published previously.

This book addresses seventy-three stone and metal sculptures originating from Java and Sumatra between the eighth and fifteenth centuries. Of these seventy-three, fifty-one remain in Java and Sumatra to this day, either on site or in museums, whilst twenty-one are now to be found elsewhere in the world. The location of one sculpture is presently unknown.

This diaspora of sculptures is indicated in map 5, which illustrates that over a quarter of these sculptures are to be found across eleven museums in nine countries. Within Indonesia, on the islands of Java and Sumatra, fourteen different museums, institutions and sites hold the remaining sculptures. Not included among this number is the single bronze for which the location is unknown. The most significant number of Central and East Javanese sculptures are to be found in Java, followed by those in three museums in Leiden and Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

A number of the sculptures found within Europe reveal fascinating “object stories”. From the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Dutch and English authorities were particularly involved in the relocation of several statues that now reside in European museum collections.