Bodhisattva

  • Excavated from the Fengxiansi Temple Site
  • Tang dynasty
  • Limestone
  • H-63.2
  •  
    Longmen Caves Research Institute
Catalogue Entry

Limestone/ Excavated from the Fengxiansi Temple Site, Tang dynasty/
H. 63.2 cm/ Longmen Caves Research Institute
Only the head, missing its topknot, and the right shoulder of this figure remain. The face is 22.0 cm tall and 21.0 cm wide. Thus, while at first this face appears to be elongated, in fact, there is only 1 cm of difference between the face's height and width. The eyes are slightly downcast, the nose is long and the mouth is pushed into flower-petal shaped lips. These features all give a sense of an extremely mature figure and the image is filled with a serious dignity. The hair on the head is arranged in narrow bundles, with hair lines defined in detailed incising. A decorative head band with floral decoration on the front is bound horizontally over this detailed hair. The knot of the head band hangs over the right shoulder. Locks of hair hang to the shoulders and the chest decoration is lively. These last two features are more clearly more advanced than those seen on the bodhisattva displayed as cat. No. 47. It is surmised that this sculpture was created around the middle of the 8th century.