Unknown
Chinese, Tang dynasty
Buddhist Stele, Amitabha Buddha and the Western Paradise, 697
limestone
50 x 32 x 8½ in.
SBMA, Bequest of Mr. Prynce Hopkins
1970.39.5
RESEARCH PAPER
Identity and Description of Object
This Chinese stone stele is one of many typical Buddhist sculptures found in northern China at the end of the 7th century CE. Hand carved out of limestone, it follows a set pattern of iconographic images, and some images can be traced back to their Indian origins and identified. This type of object was found in Buddhist temples and/or courtyards. Our piece was probably commissioned by a wealthy donor, family, or possibly by a large group of zealous patrons believing in Amitabha Buddha or Pure Land Buddhism early in the Tang dynasty.
The stele has been restored to its current condition. The piece indicates it has been weathered, and some of the stele’s figures’ heads indicate they had fallen off. Some of the figures may have been recarved because some have sharp pointed edges and features. A fine coating of limestone dust has been applied to the stele in recent conservation, giving it an even texture and color.
Style
By Han times the advent of Buddhism developed an art form of its own. To the Chinese, writing and painting were considered the highest forms of art, while sculpture and other forms of art remained the work of the artisan or craftsman. Calligraphy on stone, ranging from small tablet to large stele, was a common practice in China from earliest times, and was considered a way to record the styles of individual artists and preserve classic writings.
About the time this piece was made, Buddhism was expanding and reaching a mature phase of development in northern China. Foreign rulers from central Asia encouraged the spread of Buddhism in the northern provinces as a unifying influence for the people, and during this time many sculptured figures of Buddha were beginning to appear in Chinese culture. Chinese Buddhism not only translated the sutras and doctrines from India but also many of the images of the deities themselves.
Our stele was a form of public display of classical Buddhist images and shows the beginning of a full Tang style. We see well-proportioned figures wearing minimally carved close-fitting garments that follow body contours. The figures have calm plump faces and bodies that symbolize royalty and prosperous times. Here are the beginnings of fully-modeled plastic planes and a desire to bring the stone to life, suggesting it has no solidity. In form each image in the stele holds its place and contributes to the whole in a calculated balance.
Content
The Buddhist sect represented on this stele is that of Pure Land (Jingtu), where Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, is the supreme Buddha. The principal scene illustrates Amitabha Buddha in the Western Paradise sitting under a jeweled canopy while perched upon lotus blossoms in the lotus pond. Buddha is said to have perceived people at various states of spiritual development, paralleling that of the development of the lotus flower in its pond.
The Buddhist heaven consists of 33 levels with Buddha sitting at the top on his lotus flower surveying his sphere. Pure Land represents one of the four spheres of existence found in Buddhist philosophy and was the most important and popular Buddhist sect that developed after the 6th century in northern China.
Pure Land was described as rich, full, comfortable, and filled with men and gods. In the Western Paradise one received all the beauties and luxuries that one could wish for in this life, without all the evil things of life, such as wild animals, ghosts, women, and demons. (At a later date everyone was included in the Western Paradise.) The teachings of compassion, sympathetic joy, tolerance, and gentleness could be heard, spoken by Buddha. Jeweled trees lined river banks that flowed with sweet-scented waters. By squinting at the water one could make it run hot or cold. When one died and went to Pure Land heaven, one was born again on a lotus flower in the lotus pond with Amitabha.
Several levels of heaven—or at least the two uppermost ones—can be seen in this stele. Above heaven is the two-headed dragon that looms protectively down around Buddha and his court. The dragon is a purely indigenous Chinese symbol that becomes incorporated into this Buddhist scene. Below the dragon’s heads are four guardian angels, two on each side. Between them in the center sits Amitabha as the major figure of the stele. He is flanked by two disciples, Ananda and Sakyamuni, and two bodhisattvas. Below them sit winged musicians and a lovely dancer who probably represents the bliss of paradise. Above Amitabha in his own smaller niche sits Maitreya, the laughing Buddha of the Future who represents the older sect of Mahayana Buddhism.
Amitabha Buddhism made religion more accessible to the people of northern China after the mid-6th century. So easy was it to be a follower of Amitabha Buddha that one had only to utter Buddha’s name with sincerity to enter the Western Paradise.
Bibliography
Sickman, Lawrence, and Alexander Soper. The Art and Architecture of China. New York: Penguin Books, 1971.
Williams, C. A. S. Outline of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs. New York: Dover Publishing Inc., 1976.
Yap, Yong, and Arthur Cotterell. The Early Civilization of China. New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1975.
Audio Tape
Tai, Susan, “The Buddhist Iconography of a Sixth Century Chinese Buddhist Stele,” Art à la Carte Talk, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, July 17, 1985.
Prepared for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Docent Council by Michael Edward Jameson, April 10, 1986
SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS
Amitabha, the supreme Buddha of the Pureland (Jingtu) sect, is seated in the middle of the lower panel, flanked by his disciples and attending bodhisattva. He taught a doctrine of easy access to salvation by simply evoking his name. Worshippers shall be reborn in his Western Paradise before being guided to nirvana. This doctrine was immediately popular during the Tang dynasty and images of the Western Paradise proliferated in painting and sculpture.
Below the seated Amitabha is a scene of his Western Paradise where musicians and a dancer interspersed with new born souls on lotus flower with guardians standing on both sides. The future Buddha, Maitreya, waits on the upper panel with his attendants.
This stele was commissioned by a group of donors whose names are inscribed on the sides. It was placed in a temple compound as an expression of Buddhist faith. This vertical, monolithic stele, with protecting dragons intertwined at top, is an old, traditional Chinese form created to memorialize commemorative writings; it reached full development at the end of the Han dynasty (early 3rd century), and was later adopted by Buddhists.
- Asian Gallery, 2011