The site has seventy-six Buddhist monasteries of the Ming — and Qing — dynasties, most of them are near the mountain top. The monasteries on this site have a flexible architectural style that adapts to the landscape. For example, some are built on terraces of varying levels, while others are raised on stilts. Here, the builders modified the fixed plans of temples of earlier periods to make full use of the natural scenery.
In the painting, Buddha Vairocana is seated on a lotus-flower throne in heaven. He is the source of the entire universe. His right hand is in the teaching gesture or dharmachakramudra. Manjushri rides a lion and Samantabhadra sits on a six-tusked elephant. Sometimes, artists depicted Samantabhadra with a feminine appearance. His name in Chinese is Puxian and in Japanese, Fugen. Kshitigarbha is of lesser importance than the other bodhisattva archetypes in terms of philosophical doctrine.
He is the savior of the oppressed and the dying. Kshitigarbha has vowed not to stop his labors until he has saved the souls of all the dead condemned to hell. In China, people believe that Kshitigarbha or Dicang is the overlord of hell. He is usually invoked when someone is about to die. In Central Asia, he often appears on temple banners. However, In Japan, Kshitigarbha or Jizo does not reign over hell.
Instead, people venerate him for the mercy he shows to the departed. In particular, he displays his kindness to dead children. Therefore, Jizo is associated with ceremonies for deceased children. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. According to the story, children who die go to the underworld as punishment for causing sorrow to their parents. Eventually, they reach Sai-no-Kawara, the riverbed of souls in purgatory.
There, they build stone towers, hoping to climb out of limbo into paradise. However, soon hell demons arrive, scatter their stones, and beat them with iron clubs. At this moment, Jizo consoles the children and hides them in the wide sleeves of his robe, thus saving them. Even today, mourning parents cover Jizo statues in pebbles. They believe that every stone tower they make will help the soul of their dead child in performing his or her penance. Parents can also cover Jizo statues in red caps or bibs.
In Japanese belief, red is the color for expelling demons and illness. This bodhisattva is also believed to aid women wishing to conceive and is the patron deity of travelers. In the sculpture, Jizo takes the guise of a monk with a shaved head. He has an urna or dot between his eyebrows as a sign of wisdom. The bodhisattva holds a jewel or chintamani in his left hand. He saves those who call out to him from harm.
The flowing movement of the garment reflects an artistic style popular in the early Kamakura period — Bodhisattva Akashagarbha is a symbol of ten paramitas or perfect virtues. It implies that his wisdom is as boundless as space. He has excellent merits and wisdom, boundless and serene as the sky. This bodhisattva is associated with the element of space, as well as wisdom and knowledge similar to Manjushri. Therefore, he helps his followers to recover from errors. Akashagarbha often appears in blue, yellow, or green in colors.
In Japan, he is now mostly worshipped in Shingon esoteric Buddhism. Depicted in gold, bodhisattva Akashagarbha or Kokuzo Bosatsu sits on a lotus pedestal within a big white circle. Here, the circle symbolizes the full moon. His right hand is lowered, the palm turned outward in a gesture of fulfilling the vow of varadamudra.
In his left hand, he holds a red lotus flower containing a sacred gem with flames. The bodhisattva emits radiating lines from the head and the body. This painting embodies an artistic style of the 13th-century Kamakura period. For example, the bodhisattva has long slit eyes, a firm body, waving long cloth, and ornamental ribbons hanging from the sides of a crown. Although this painting appears decorative, the blue, green, and red colors perfectly contrast with each other.
The mountain landscape in the lower part of the painting may represent Mount Asama. It is located in Ise, a city in Mie Prefecture, on the island of Honshu. The shrines at Ise are dismantled and rebuilt to the same specifications every twenty years. The artist created the painting with Kokuzo Bosatsu for the initiation into the esoteric rites. This phrase refers to a widely accepted belief that Indian Buddhist deities choose to appear in Japan as native kami.
The two entities form an indivisible whole called gongen. For example, this painting depicts the Buddhist identity of a Shinto deity. It feels like Kokuzo Bosatsu is looking from the space at another bodhisattva, Vajrapani, who represents the power of all the Buddhas.
Vajrapani is the bodhisattva and the Holder of the Vajra. The vajra symbolizes the potent indestructibility of Buddhist teachings. He stands among all the serene, meditative bodhisattvas, wreathed in flame with a fierce pose and face. In fact, he is one of the earliest bodhisattvas in the Mahayana tradition. He is sometimes called the wrathful bodhisattva, however he embodies forceful energy rather than anger.
The followers of tantric Buddhist practices in the Himalayan region worship Vajrapani. Although he is a bodhisattva, at the same time he is also a protector deity. In China and Japan, he is not widely venerated and only appears in the mandalas of the esoteric schools.
To many Buddhists, his figure signifies the removal of obstacles. Moreover, Vajrapani conquers negative forces through fierce determination, symbolized by the vajra that he holds. In early legends, he was the guardian of the nagas or serpent deities. He protected them against their enemies, the garudas , or bird-like deities.
In one of the stories, the Buddhas tried to hide poison from evil demons who were going to destroy humankind. While they searched for the antidote, the Buddhas asked Vajrapani to guard the poison. Nevertheless, a demon stole the poison from him. Afterwards the gods punished Vajrapani by making him drink water contaminated with the poison, which turned him blue. Tibetan Buddhism played a prominent role in the courts of the Yuan — and Ming — dynasties in China. As a result, artists created many Tibetan style Buddhist works.
Here, a Tibetan composition depicts a wrathful form of Vajrapani. The Tibetan lotus and vase columns feature a garuda , naga , and sea monsters or makara. Rather than seeking to merely destroy desire and anger, tantric practices transform these obstacles into instruments of enlightenment.
These methods require initiation by a guru, and if practitioners perform rituals correctly, they can attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. Therefore, often only with special initiations can one access the gonkhang. Even in open wrathful shrines, images of deities are veiled to protect the viewers. Nevertheless, these fearsome figures direct their energy toward eliminating negativity.
Luckily, Vajrapani has a fellow who can lend a hand. Sarvanivarana-Vishkambhin is another bodhisattva who can assist him in removing all obstacles. Believers invoke Sarvanivarana-Vishkambhin to eliminate all the obstacles and to insure a successful meditation.
In Hindu mythology, there is also a remover of obstacles, and its believers widely worship Ganesh , represented with the head of an elephant. The five mental obstacles are desire, hostility, laziness, distraction or worry, and doubts towards faith. In Buddhism, faith arises from accumulated experience and reasoning. It centers on belief in the Three Jewels. They include the Buddha, the dharma or teachings of the Buddha, and the sangha or monastic community.
This bodhisattva appears in the Lotus Sutra , in which he pays homage to Avalokiteshvara. In the painting, Sarvanivarana-Vishkambhin is white, implying that he can relieve calamities. He has a flower in his left hand, upon which lies a book, symbolizing wisdom, and a wish-fulfilling jewel or cintamani.
His right hand is in the gesture granting the absence of fear or abhayamudra mudra. This mudra has the power of giving tranquility and the absence of fear to all beings. While removing obstacles, Sarvanivarana-Vishkambhin is preparing for the arrival of Maitreya or the Future Buddha.
Maitreya was the disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha. The Buddha predicted that Maitreya would become the next incarnate Buddha in the distant future. He will appear in this world at a time when the teachings of the present Buddha have disappeared.
Until then, Maitreya sits in the Tushita heaven of our human realm of desire. The beings in this heaven know satisfaction in the pursuit of pleasure, having transcended insatiable desire. Moreover, they have a life span of four thousand years, each day of which is equal to four hundred years in the human world.
There, Maitreya contemplates how to save all suffering beings. Many of his followers believe that it is our job to prepare the world for him. In this sculpture, Maitreya wears the jewels and garments appropriate for his divine position. The now missing stem of a lotus was above the left shoulder of the bodhisattva. The brackets that held the stems of the lotuses are visible on the outside of the upper arms.
One of the lotuses could support the vase of purification or kundika filled with the nectar of enlightenment that washes away defilement. His right hand is in the gesture of teaching or dharmachakra mudra. He holds his left hand in the gesture of meditation or dhyana mudra showing that purification arises out of the meditative state.
Meditative discipline is based upon strict ethical behavior that avoids non-virtuous actions of the body, speech, and mind. Only then the mind can settle on a virtuous object and attain a state of perfect stability and clarity, called samatha. Thus, this image of Maitreya embodies the balance, beauty, and glory of this state. The now missing jewel in his forehead symbolizes this virtue. Furthermore, his face reflects the profound confidence that arises from the inner calm and wisdom of the enlightened state.
Many images of this bodhisattva have large eyes. This implies that Maitreya is a transcended being who manifests in a human-like form to interact with ordinary beings who cannot perceive him in his true form.
The blue hair in a large topknot signifies the cranial protuberance or ushnisha of a fully enlightened being. Bejeweled ornaments frame the head, and large earrings with jewels hang from the long earlobes. Delicate patterns of auspicious signs and sacred motifs adorn the lower garment. These symbolize the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks, or lakshanas , of a fully enlightened being. For the time being, Maitreya inhabits the space with great bodhisattvas who possess extraordinary skills and have immeasurable power of compassion.
Stone Guanyin at Longmen. Height: After the Tang, the cult of Guanyin grew in popularity largely due to popular literature, folk stories, and artistic images.
By the sixteenth century Guanyin had become a Chinese goddess figure. In some folk religions she had become independent from her Buddhist origins. Below are two later examples of Guanyin images.
The one on the left is from the Song and the one on the right is from the Ming. What makes these figures appear more feminine than the previous images of Guanyin? Ming painting of Guanyin source Song stone Guanyin from Majishan.
Cave source. Move on to Other Divinities. Stone Guanyin at Longmen Height: Wall painting of Guanyin, 8th c. Height: cm 6 ft 3 in source. Ming painting of Guanyin source. Song stone Guanyin from Majishan Cave source. Clay Bodhisattva from Maijishan, 5th c Height: cm 4 ft 7 in source.
One of these Bodhisattva figures below is an early Tang example and the other is a Sui example. Nevertheless, women have always been important patrons of Buddhist art. The creation and commissioning of art is a religious act in itself that reaps good karma in this and subsequent lifetimes. As for temples, monastic life has not been limited to men. Nuns have abounded throughout the history of Buddhism, and many have played crucial roles in the spread of Buddhism and temple life itself.
Finally, images of buddhas and bodhisattvas often represent the deities as male, but not always. The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara you may know this deity by its Chinese name, Guanyin is often represented as a mustachioed man with long hair and flowing robes, but there are also several forms that present as female.
One of these forms is widely worshipped in East and Southeast Asia as a protector of mothers during childbirth.
Do Buddhists who practice today revere these old pieces or prefer more contemporary interpretations? Asked by Wendy. Yes and no. A devotional image is sacred regardless of the time period in which it was created. A 2,year-old sculpture has no more religious significance than one made yesterday. New or old, they embody the deity represented.
That said, an old icon will of course have more historical and artistic significance. To some believers, that may make it seem more sacred. What did the Buddha have to say about age and death? Is it shown in art? Asked by Daniel. The historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, was born a prince and spent the early years of his life leading a secluded, privileged lifestyle.
At age 29, he set out on a rare outing from the palace, and discovered a sick man, an aged man, and a dead person. These three realities of human life—sickness, aging, and death—he came to understand as the unavoidable forms of human suffering.
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