Monday with the Leshan Buddha

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Yesterday was slightly more relaxed with a visit to the art markets of Chengdu and then a trip to the Sichuan Provincial Museum. They have some interesting sculpture and paintings. I took many photos of the art and tried to take better images of the pieces already photographed and up on the website. The late afternoon and evening was spent with a friend that flew in from Beijing although he usually stays in Shanghai. We have often traveled together in China or at least meet up in a selected city.

This morning came a little early as we had arranged a car for 9:00 to take us out the Leshan historical sight. This place boasts the largest seated stone carved Buddha in the world. Up until a few years ago it was the largest Buddha sculpture in the world. I think a modern sculpture outside of Shanghai boasts the record. Leshan has been the largest Buddha since the Tang dynasty in China - maybe 1300 or 1400 years old. It is very impressive but unfortunately I have not prepared my many images for upload. That will have to wait for tomorrow or Wednesday.

The work day tomorrow will begin at 10:00 with an appointment to discuss art with an individual, quite well known, that I have never met. That will be followed by a quick lunch and then a fast taxi ride out to the university to prepare the photocopied handouts of the nights outline in English and Chinese. All of the images for tomorrow also need to be arranged and re-numbered so as to follow in the required order matching the nights outline. I have been using between 45 and 55 images each night. It sounds like a lot but remember it is a 2 1/2 hour class with and additional 1/2 hour for questions. I generally show several visual examples of each important subject within the larger topics.

The subject title for tomorrow night is Peaceful Appearance in Tibetan Iconography. It will be a little challenging because it first has to do with the definition of a peaceful deity, bodhisattvas in general, followed by the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, miscellaneous bodhisattvas and other bodhisattvas. The Five Buddha Families comes next. After that the peaceful deities have to be understood according to the general categories of function, such as, Long-life, Wisdom, Healing, Protection, Wealth, and the various miscellaneous types. Specific examples have been chosen to best represent each group. It would be impossible in the short amount of time to try and list all, let alone describe each. So, tomorrow night will be a structured class defining and describing the Peaceful Figurative subjects found in Tibetan art with selected key images and deities as examples.

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Photos

The Leshan Buddha
The largest stone carved Buddha sculpture in the world.