Open Collections

Hall of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin at the Monastery of Redoubled Peace (Chongtai Si 重泰寺)

From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)

The hall to Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音 at the Monastery of Redoubled Peace is a small single-bay (danjian 單間) structure located in the courtyard just south of the Water-and-Land Hall (Shuilu dian 水陸殿). Most of the room is taken up by a large statue of the deity, making it difficult to photograph the murals in full--the two full-wall images provided here are composites and may contain small inconsistencies. The two side-walls display the very common theme ‘Guanyin Who Saves from Terrors’ (jiuku Guanyin 救苦觀音), in which Guanyin rescues devotees who call her name from a series of terrors. This narrative is drawn from the ‘Universal Gate’ (pumenpin 普門品) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, and is known as the ‘Eight Terrors’ (Skt. aṣtaghora) in Indo-Tibetan art. Triangular rafter panels show charming scenes of monks going about their work. Overall the quality of the painting in this tiny chapel is very high, but the exact date and name of the painter are now nowhere to be found. The style of the paintings points to an 18th century date.

Hebei sheng (China); Yu Xian (Hebei Sheng, China); 39.922601; 114.482368

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0413597

Non UBC

Graduate

DSpace