Abstract
The image of the pensive bodhisattva was widely reproduced in East Asian Buddhist art between the fifth and the eighth centuries, but the majority of surviving examples were carved at a small number of sites in central and southern Hebei over a period spanning just four decades (ca. 540–580). During this period, Hebei artisans elevated the pensive bodhisattva image to a new level of prominence by making it a central figure in their iconographic schemes. I argue on the basis of iconographic, epigraphic, and literary evidence that these innovative pensive bodhisattva images functioned as icons expressing patrons’ reverence for an ideal of meditative contemplation. Considered together with hagiographic accounts, this interpretation of the Hebei pensive bodhisattva images sheds new light on the history of Buddhist meditation by revealing the existence of a distinctive local culture of meditation practices and associated beliefs in sixth-century Hebei.
Keywords
Siwei, Buddhist statue, Maitreya, Siddhƒrtha, Northern Qi dynasty
Cite
Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.
