The Hell Tableau (地獄變), Niche 20, Baodingshan Dafowan Rock Carvings (寶頂山大佛灣摩崖造像) – Ten Buddhas

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The Hell Tableau (地獄變), Niche 20, Baodingshan Dafowan Rock Carvings (寶頂山大佛灣摩崖造像) – Ten Buddhas Anderl, Christoph

Description

Baodingshan Dafowan Rock Carvings (寶頂山大佛灣摩崖造像) is situated in Baoding Town (寶頂鎮), Dazu District (大足區), Chongqing (重慶). The site contains 32 rock carving niches dated to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279 CE). This niche depicts a complex Hell Tableau (地獄變) illustration in four layers. The upper layer contains a line of ten Buddha images representing the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. The middle layer has Kṣitigarbha (Dizang Bodhisattva, 地藏菩薩) flanked by the Ten Kings (shi wang, 十王), who are in charge of the Hells and their attendants. The bottom two layers depict the punishment scenes of the eighteen hells. There is a row of ten Buddha images on the upper level, each sitting in circular shrines and holding different hand gestures. Although no inscriptions exist, specific hand gestures dedicated to particular Buddhas can help identify them. For example, Amitabha (阿彌陀佛) is the second one from Kṣitigarbha's left and has the hand gesture of the highest level of the highest grade rebirth (上品上生印), while Vairocana (毗盧遮那佛) is the third one from Kṣitigarbha's right and has the fist of wisdom mudra (智拳印). The circular body halos of the ten Buddhas emit light in wavy patterns that reach the edges of their shrines. Descriptions of the photos: Overview of the Ten Buddhas on the upper part of the tableau [Image 01]. Overview of the group on the left side of Kṣitigarbha [Image 02]. Overview of the group on the right side of Kṣitigarbha [Image 03, Image 04]. Close-up of the Buddha images [Image 05 to Image 10]. Close-up of Amitabha (the middle one) with the hand gesture of the highest level of the highest grade rebirth [Image 11]. Metadata created by: Sau Ling Wendy Yu.

Item Metadata

Title	The Hell Tableau (地獄變), Niche 20, Baodingshan Dafowan Rock Carvings (寶頂山大佛灣摩崖造像) – Ten Buddhas
Creator	Anderl, Christoph
Contributor	From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)
Date Issued	2016-11-01
Description	Baodingshan Dafowan Rock Carvings (寶頂山大佛灣摩崖造像) is situated in Baoding Town (寶頂鎮), Dazu District (大足區), Chongqing (重慶). The site contains 32 rock carving niches dated to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279 CE). This niche depicts a complex Hell Tableau (地獄變) illustration in four layers. The upper layer contains a line of ten Buddha images representing the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. The middle layer has Kṣitigarbha (Dizang Bodhisattva, 地藏菩薩) flanked by the Ten Kings (shi wang, 十王), who are in charge of the Hells and their attendants. The bottom two layers depict the punishment scenes of the eighteen hells. There is a row of ten Buddha images on the upper level, each sitting in circular shrines and holding different hand gestures. Although no inscriptions exist, specific hand gestures dedicated to particular Buddhas can help identify them. For example, Amitabha (阿彌陀佛) is the second one from Kṣitigarbha's left and has the hand gesture of the highest level of the highest grade rebirth (上品上生印), while Vairocana (毗盧遮那佛) is the third one from Kṣitigarbha's right and has the fist of wisdom mudra (智拳印). The circular body halos of the ten Buddhas emit light in wavy patterns that reach the edges of their shrines. Descriptions of the photos: Overview of the Ten Buddhas on the upper part of the tableau [Image 01]. Overview of the group on the left side of Kṣitigarbha [Image 02]. Overview of the group on the right side of Kṣitigarbha [Image 03, Image 04]. Close-up of the Buddha images [Image 05 to Image 10]. Close-up of Amitabha (the middle one) with the hand gesture of the highest level of the highest grade rebirth [Image 11]. Metadata created by: Sau Ling Wendy Yu.
Subject	Dazu; Baodingshan; Buddhist art; Rock carving; Buddha; Ksitigarbha; Dizang; Ten Kings; Hell; Amitabha; Vairocana
Geographic Location	Chongqing (China); Dazu Qu (Chongqing, China); 29.75437; 105.794066
Type	Still Image
Language	chi
Notes	Author Affiliation: Ghent University, University of Hong Kong
Series	Cluster 3.4: Typologies of Text-Image Relations
Date Available	2024-04-23
Provider	Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights	Attribution 4.0 International
DOI	10.14288/1.0441485
URI	http://hdl.handle.net/2429/87947
Affiliation	Non UBC
Peer Review Status	Unreviewed
Scholarly Level	Faculty
Rights URI	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository	DSpace

Item Media

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_1_2016.tif -- 138.28MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_2_2016.tif -- 33.55MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_3_2016.tif -- 35.87MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_4_2016.tif -- 138.28MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_5_2016.tif -- 138.27MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_6_2016.tif -- 138.27MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_7_2016.tif -- 138.27MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_8_2016.tif -- 138.27MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_9_2016.tif -- 138.27MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_10_2016.tif -- 138.27MB

Anderl_C_Hell_Tableau_ten_buddhas_11_2016.tif -- 138.27MB

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Rights

Attribution 4.0 International

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