The work retains various traces of color, and is clearly identifiable as a Buddha's head thanks to the presence of the circle between the eyebrows, one of the thirty-two main signs that characterized it since its birth. The absorbed gaze and the relaxed expression of the mouth in a slight smile underline the state of inner peace and total detachment reached by the Buddha in nirvāņa, an event that causes the complete extinction of craving and illusion (ignorance).