Buddhist Sculpture

文物介绍：

This is the largest early gilt-bronze Chinese sculpture known today. The Buddha’s broad shoulders, powerful physique, and long legs derive from fifth century Indian prototypes that spread to China along the Silk Road, an example of which can be seen directly behind you in the gallery for Indian art.

弥勒佛介绍：

Maitreya is regarded as a prophesied Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology, and worshiped both as a bodhisattva and as a Buddha, for it is believed that once the current cosmic era has destroyed itself, he will be reborn as the teaching Buddha of the next great era. According to Buddhist tradition, Maitreya is a bodhisattva who is prophesied to appear on Earth, achieve complete Enlightenment, and teach the pure Dharma. According to scriptures, Maitreya will be a successor to the present Buddha, Gautama Buddha (also known as Śākyamuni Buddha).The arrival of Maitreya is prophesied to occur during an era when the teachings of Gautama Buddha has been forgotten by most of the terrestrial world. Due to the nature of his task and the state of the world, Maitreya is often considered to be the greatest of all Buddhas.

文物介绍：

This complex assembly depicts the Buddha of the Future, Maitreya, who descends to earth to enlighten and save devout believers. He stands in front of an openwork back panel encircled by flames and flying celestial musicians, gesturing to reassure worshipers and promising to grant their wishes. Two attendant bodhisattvas stand at his side, with another pair at his feet. Next to them are four patrons—two on each side—dressed in secular clothes and holding bowls of offerings. Thunderbolt bearers are placed as guardians at opposite front corners of the altarpiece. Below the main platform are two seated lions—protectors of the dharma, or the universal truth of Buddhism. An incised text on the base records the name of the person and date upon which he commissioned this sculpture to invoke the Buddha’s blessing for his deceased son and relatives.

文物介绍：

The teaching gesture made by this figure, with the thumb of the right hand touching the little finger of the left, identifies him as Vairocana, the celestial Buddha who resides at the center of the cosmos. Vairocana is considered a transcendent form of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.

Though similar in appearance, he exists on another plane, unhindered by a mortal body.

大日如来佛介绍：

Vairocana is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the Avatamsaka Sutra, as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East Asian Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of śūnyatā. In the conception of the 5 Jinas of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Vairocana is at the center and is considered a Primordial Buddha.

Vairocana represents the dharma body of the historical Buddha. Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of sunyata, emptiness, and is one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas, which represent the five qualities of the Buddha. In this respect, Vairocana represents the Buddha's all-encompassing wisdom.

文物介绍：

The current sculpture of Vairocana is of exceptional size, among the largest bronze Buddhist sculptures created in the early to mid-Ming dynasty. The power of its presence, with its mighty solidly cast body seated perfectly balanced with hands held in uttarabodhi mudra, still resonates today. When it was originally created for an important temple, it would have struck awe into the minds of devotees.

文物介绍：

A removable panel in the back of this image gives access to a hollow interior that would have been filled with offerings at the time of the piece’s consecration. The interior surface of the panel bears a date (1282) and a small bronze mirror (34.15.2) that functioned as a protective talisman.

The bodhisattva has a rounded physique and stands in a slightly twisting pose, which creates a sense of depth. Both conventions attest to the introduction of Indo-Himalayan sculptural traditions in China in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the Mongols controlled both China and parts of Tibet. The elaborate coiffure also derives from these traditions.

观音介绍：

Guanyin is the Buddhist bodhisattvaassociated with compassion. She is the East Asian equivalent of Avalokiteśvara and has been adopted by other Eastern religions including Chinese folk religion. She was first given the appellation of "goddess of mercy" or the mercy goddess by Jesuit missionaries in China. The Chinese name Guanyin is short for

Guanshiyin, which means "[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of the World."

Some Buddhists believe that when one of their adherents departs from this world, they are placed by Guanyin in the heart of a lotus, and then sent to the western pure land of Sukhāvatī. Guanyin is often referred to as the "most widely beloved Buddhist Divinity" with miraculous powers to assist all those who pray to her, as is said in the Lotus Sutra and Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra.

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Avalokiteshvara (the Bodhisattva of Compassion) and Manjushri (the Bodhisattva of Wisdom) are identifiable by the fact that both, at times, appear atop lions. As such, they are said to assume the form of Simhanada, or the Lion's Roar, which is a reference to the intensity of the moment of enlightenment. Here, the lion's recumbent pose and the bodhisattva's sidewise posture suggest that this sculpture represents Simhanada Avalokiteshvara, although the headdress does not bear the image of a seated Buddha, which is Avalokiteshvara's standard identifying attribute. Depictions of Simhanada Avalokiteshvara developed in India around the eleventh or twelfth century and appeared in China during the twelfth.