Open Collections

Detail of donor inscriptions, Thousand Buddha cave (Qianfo dong 千佛洞), Pilu dong 毗廬洞

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

Rows of Buddha-like figures carved in relief on the lower register of the west in the Thousand Buddha cave (Qianfo dong 千佛洞), Pilu cave (Pilu dong 毗盧洞), Anyue xian 安岳縣, Sichuan sheng 四川省. The names of these reliefs' donors are mostly inscribed to the right or left of the figures within the rounded niches. In a few cases more detailed information concerning the donors is inscribed outside the small niches. Photo [1] provides more detail concerning the patronage of the site rather than simply inscribing the name. It reads as follows: "冉岳作佛三尊□主碑上" ("Ran Yue commissioned three statues of Buddha ... on the main stele") This inscription not only indicates the numbers of statues that the donor Ran Yue 冉岳 commissioned but it also attests to the link between the patronage of the Thousand Buddha Cave's figurative relief with the inscribed stele located in Guanyin Hall (Guanyin tang 觀音堂), where the name Ran Yue appears again. The stele located in the Guanyin hall dates to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), hence the construction period of the Buddha's figures could also date from the same period. (Information based on personal communication with Dr. Yang Xiaodong 楊曉東 (Sun Yat-sen University) on May 28 and 30, 2022). Metadata created by Huajie Fan (May 31, 2022)

Sichuan Sheng (China); Anyue Xian (China); Yuanjue dong (China); 29.929163; 105.630846

chi

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0428615

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