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Avalokitesvara (觀音菩薩) and Mahasthamaprapta (大勢至菩薩) flanked by the Twelve Enlightened Bodhisattvas (十二圓覺菩薩), Niche 8, Mingshan si (茗山寺)

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

Niche 8 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 middle wall depicts two giant standing bodhisattva statues, Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin pusa 觀音菩薩) on the right and Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Dashizhi pusa 大勢至菩薩) on the left. Both bodhisattvas wear tall floral crowns, necklaces and double-collar drooping cassocks, standing barefoot on a rectangular platform. Their crowns have a small seated Buddha figure in the middle. Avalokiteśvara holds a three-paged palm-leaf manuscript in his left hand, while the right hand forms a mudra, similar to the western victory sign, indicating non-duality (bu ‘er fa men 不二法門). The object in Mahāsthāmaprāpta left hand is missing, while his right hand grasps the edge of his cassock. A small seated Avalokiteśvara statue is placed between the two giant statues. This seated Avalokiteśvara holds a vase with both hands and wears a crown with a small Buddha image in the middle. The style of this small Avalokiteśvara suggests is was added later, with the pigments probably painted during the Qing Dynasty 清 (1644-1911). The two giant bodhisattva statues are flanked by the Twelve Enlightened Bodhisattvas (shi’er yuanjue pusa 十二圓覺菩薩), six on either side. All of them are seated, and their heads are missing, except two on the right side, with heads obviously fixed in a later period. Some of them hold ritual objects in their hands. A stone stele with the title “yuanjue bei” (圓覺碑) dated to the reign of Tongzhi (同治) (1861-1875) during the Qing Dynasty is found on the right side of the Avalokiteśvara statue. Moreover, another two stone plaques marking the names of donors are placed behind the Twelve Enlightened Bodhisattvas on either side. Descriptions of the photos: Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta [Image 01]. Close-up of Avalokiteśvara [Image 02, Image 03, Image 04, Image 05]. Close-up of Mahāsthāmaprāpta [Image 06, Image 07, Image 08, Image 09]. Close-up of the small seated Avalokiteśvara [Image 10]. Twelve Enlightened Bodhisattvas and the stone plaques [Image 11, Image 12, Image 13, Image 14, Image 15]. 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

10.14288/1.0438587

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