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Manjusri (文殊菩薩), Niche 3, Mingshan si (茗山寺)

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

Niche 3 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). The niche depicts a standing Mañjuśrī (Wenshu pusa 文殊菩薩) wearing a tall crown, a two-layered necklace and a double-collar drooping cassock. The crown has sophisticated floral motifs and contains a seated Vairocana (Piluzhenafo 毘盧遮那佛) forming a Bodhyangi Mudrā (zhiquanyin 智拳印). Both of Mañjuśr's hands are damaged, but which the left one appears to be holding a scripture. Small shrines are lay on either side of Mañjuśrī. Each side should contain five shrines. However, only three remain on the left side. Small seated figures are depicted in each shrine. Those figures in the right side of the niche are severely eroded and their identities are uncertain. The top and bottom shrines on the left side depict a seated Buddha figure, while the middle has an image of a lay practitioner. Some scholars suggest that this image may be Zhao Zhifeng 趙智鳳 (1159-1249 CE), who initiated the establishment of rock carvings in Baodingshan (寶頂山) of Dazu (大足) and promoted Tantric Buddhism in the Sichuan region during the Southern Song Dynasty. In addition, five characters, “xian shi li fa shen” (現師利法身), reading from right to left, are engraved in the niche frame above Mañjuśrī. Source: 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 niche [Image 01, Image 02]. Surrounding environment of the niche [Image 03, Image 04]. Close-up of Mañjuśrī [Image 05]. Close-up of the small shrines on either side of Mañjuśrī [Image 06, Image 07, Image 08, Image 09, Image 10]. Close-up of the small shrine with a lay practitioner image [Image 11]. Close-up of the inscriptions above Mañjuśrī [Image 12, Image 13, Image 14, Image 15]. Metadata created by: Sau Ling Wendy Yu.

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

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Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0438585

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