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The Peacock King (Kongque mingwang 孔雀明王), Kongque dong 孔雀洞 Anderl, Christoph

Description

These photographs show the statue of the Peacock King (Ch. Kongque mingwang 孔雀明王) in Kongque dong 孔雀洞, Anyue xian 安岳縣, Sichuan sheng 四川省. The peacock king is a female bodhisattva featured in the Peacock King Sutra (Ch. Kongquewang zhou jing 孔雀王咒經, Skt. Mahāmayūrī-vidyarājñī-sūtra) and the Book of the Peacock Spell (Ch. Fomu dakongque mingwang jing 佛母大孔雀明王經, Skt. Āryam-aha-vidyarājñī-sūtra). While the main iconographic feauture of the deity is the peacock, she also has three peculiar faces with three eyes on each face and four hands holding various objects. She was believed to have several auspicious powers, such as protecting people from snake bite and bringing rain to the crops. The Peacock King is also generally associated with Amoghasiddhi (Ch. Bukong chengjiu fo 不空成就佛). Unlike the other four deities included in the Pañcarakṣā (5 incantantion spells related to 5 goddesses), she appears to have had a well-developed cult in India. This statue represents Mahāmayūrī sitting in a meditation posture, namely the lotus position. Her legs are crossed with soles facing upward. Metadata created by: Veerle Vantomme, Violetta Maes, Junxi Sun, Changmeng Wan, Chiung-Ju Huang, and Sinae Kim.

Item Metadata

Title
The Peacock King (Kongque mingwang 孔雀明王), Kongque dong 孔雀洞
Creator
Anderl, Christoph
Contributor
From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)
Date Issued
2019-05-23
Description
These photographs show the statue of the Peacock King (Ch. Kongque mingwang 孔雀明王) in Kongque dong 孔雀洞, Anyue xian 安岳縣, Sichuan sheng 四川省. The peacock king is a female bodhisattva featured in the Peacock King Sutra (Ch. Kongquewang zhou jing 孔雀王咒經, Skt. Mahāmayūrī-vidyarājñī-sūtra) and the Book of the Peacock Spell (Ch. Fomu dakongque mingwang jing 佛母大孔雀明王經, Skt. Āryam-aha-vidyarājñī-sūtra). While the main iconographic feauture of the deity is the peacock, she also has three peculiar faces with three eyes on each face and four hands holding various objects. She was believed to have several auspicious powers, such as protecting people from snake bite and bringing rain to the crops. The Peacock King is also generally associated with Amoghasiddhi (Ch. Bukong chengjiu fo 不空成就佛). Unlike the other four deities included in the Pañcarakṣā (5 incantantion spells related to 5 goddesses), she appears to have had a well-developed cult in India. This statue represents Mahāmayūrī sitting in a meditation posture, namely the lotus position. Her legs are crossed with soles facing upward. Metadata created by: Veerle Vantomme, Violetta Maes, Junxi Sun, Changmeng Wan, Chiung-Ju Huang, and Sinae Kim.
Subject
Anyue Buddhist Site; Sichuan Buddhist Art; Kongque dong; Peacock King; Buddhism; Stone Inscriptions
Geographic Location
Sichuan Sheng (China); Anyue Xian (China); Yuanjue dong (China); 29.8635436; 105.6553262
Type
Still Image
Language
zxx
Notes
Author Affiliation: Ghent University
Series
Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations
Date Available
2023-03-21
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0428055
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83939
Affiliation
Non UBC
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
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Attribution 4.0 International