Nishyanda Buddha
2 min readThis famous Nishyanda Buddha is main statue of Fengxian Temple in Longmen Grottoes. Engraved in the peak period of the Tang Dynasty, it is representative of sculpture art of the Tang Dynasty. Statue of Nishyanda Buddha takes sitting posture, which is covered by cassock with grand appearance. It has total height of 17.14 meters. It is 4 meters from head top to mandible, and an ear is 1.9 meters long. It is said that when this statue was built, Wu Zetian donated cosmetics money of 20,000 strings of cash. Later generation of people believe that this statue is modeled after Wu Zetian, the only female emperor.
Manjusri, assistant to Nishyanda Buddha
Manjusri is the eldest disciple of Buddha Sakyamuni, which comes on top among all Bodhisattvas. It is shaped like a child wearing crown, which holds lotus in left hand and sword in right hand, and rides a lion. In Fengxian Temple, Manjusri is enshrined as left assistant to Nishyanda Buddha. It wears refined crown, and covers with silk. Its big ear is close to shoulder. This statue features strong body and kind face. The whole artwork is an amazing masterpiece crystallizing super craftsmanship.
Nishyanda Buddha
Nishyanda Buddha is Samboghakaya of Buddha Sakyamuni. According to the doctrine of Mahayana, Buddha Sakyamuni has three bodies, i.e., Dharmakaya (reflecting absolute truth) Samboghakaya (reflecting infinite wisdom) and Incarnation (preaching for the people). Dharmakaya is called as “Mandala Vairocana”, Samboghakaya is called as “Nishyanda Buddha”, and Incarnation is called as “Buddha Sakyamuni”.
Longmen Grottoes and Fengxian Temple
On both banks of Yishui River at south suburb of Luoyang, Henan, there is a natural gate, which gets its name of Longmen since ancient times. From the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, grottoes were chiseled for 400 years here. With south-north length of 1 kilometer, Longmen Grottoes include 1352 grottoes and 100,000 Buddha statues. Fengxian Temple, built in the peak period of the Tang Dynasty, is the largest grotto temple. In this temple, Nishyanda Buddha is escorted by two disciples, Bodhisattvas, Vajras, earth gods and other statues. These artworks are all refifi nedly made and brilliant decorated.
Grottoes and grotto sculptures
Grottoes refer to grotto temples for short, which is Buddhist temple chiseled by the ancients on cliff. Grotto sculptures used to see wood buildings in front of grottoes. However, only grottoes are left, as wood buildings are destroyed. Grotto temples originated in India. In China, grotto temples were chiseled since the 3rd century, which reached the climax in the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties. Grotto temples were built by the ancients to worship Buddha statues and practise, where many Buddha murals and sculptures (i.e., grotto sculptures) are kept. They are manifested in form of stone carving, clay sculpture and clay sculpture base on stone bone, etc.
