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The Bodhisattva Guanyin
The Buddhist deity Guanyin (Kuan-yin) sits in a paradise that looks exactly like an elegant Chinese garden, with a giant rock, tall bamboo, and a lotus pond. Guanyin ("he who hears the sufferings of humankind") is also the Bodhisattva who stands next to the Buddha Amitabha in the western heaven. Guanyin became the most frequently invoked Bodhisattva (or future Buddha) in China, and women appealed to him for the birth of a son. Here a flask with holy water and willow branch in a bowl stand beside him; a "golden boy" and a "jade girl" pay homage to him; and a heavenly king appears in the sky. The engraving from which this rubbing was made was cut into a stone wall or pillar within a Buddhist temple.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Mr. and Mrs. Laurance P. and Isabel Roberts, Baltimore, Maryland; given to Walters Art Museum, 1990.
Geographies
China (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Overall: 44 3/4 x 26 3/16 in. (113.7 x 66.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Laurance and Isabel Roberts, 1990
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
96.103