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Thousand-armed and Thousand-eyed Avalokitesvara (千手千眼觀音) and donor plaques, Mingshan si (茗山寺)

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

This Thousand-armed and Thousand-eyed Avalokitesvara (qian shou qian yan Guanyin 千手千眼觀音) is located in Mingshan Temple (茗山寺), situated in Dingxin Town (頂新鄉), Anyue County (安岳縣), Ziyang City (資陽巿), Sichuan. The site contains twelve rock carving niches, mostly dating from the late Northern Song Dynasty 北宋 (960–1127) to the early Southern Song Dynasty 南宋 (1127–1279). According to the monumental plaques, this standing Avalokitesvara statue was “renovated” in 2017 with the sponsorship of the local community. It is uncertain if there was an original statue since previous investigation reports of this site did not mention a Thousand-armed and Thousand-eyed Avalokitesvara statue [1]. The bodhisattva has ten heads distributed in four layers. The top is a Buddha head, while the rest are bodhisattva heads adorned with floral crowns. The crown of the central head at the bottom layer is decorated with a vase motif. The arms in the front layer hold various ritual objects. The bodhisattva is flanked by two standing attendants, Sudhana (Shancai tongzi 善財童子) on the left and Nāgakanyā (Longnü 龍女) on the right. These three figures are gold-foiled, with their eyes and eyebrows painted with a black pigment and their lips coloured in vermillion. The bodhisattva and Sudhana form Añjali Mudras (heshi 合十), while Nāgakanyā holds an unknown object with both hands. The bodhisattva’s oval halo, trimmed with flame patterns, is painted blue and red. In addition, auspicious cloud motifs are depicted on both sides below the halo. [1] Hu Wenhe 胡文和. Sichuan daojiao fojiao shiku yishu 四川道教佛教石窟藝術 [the Art of Sichuan Daoist and Buddhist Grottoes]. Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1994. 71; Xu Yanyan 徐胭胭, Wang Lei 王磊, Li Yunyan 李耘燕, and Tan Haoyuan 譚浩源. "Sichuan Anyue xian Mingshansi shiku diaocha jianbao 四川安岳縣茗山寺石窟調查簡報 [A Brief Investigation Report of the Rock Carvings in Mingshan Temple, Anyue, Sichuan]." Sichuan wenwu 四川文物, no. 03 (2015): 23-31. Descriptions of the photos: Overview of the statue [Image 01]. Close-up of the statue [Image 02]. Overview of the monumental plaques marking the donors’ names and donation amounts [Image 03]. Close-up of the monumental plaques [Image 04, Image 05]. Metadata created by: Sau Ling Wendy Yu.

Anyue (China); Sichuan (China); 30.06192; 105.56822

chi

Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0438582

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