Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Buddha Amitabha and his pantheon


Korea
Unknown (Korea)
Buddha Amitabha and his pantheon
1931
179.2008
Art Gallery of New South Wales

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This is not Amitabha. This is a painting from a "Seven Stars Shrine". It's a uniquely Korean Buddhist subject that stems from their indigenous worship of the Big Dipper (Seven Stars) as the giver of life (and babies) and the dictator of the length of a life. When it got absorbed into Buddhism, each star was associated with a different Buddha. You can always tell a Seven Stars painting because there are seven haloed buddhas or bodhisatvas surrounding the central figure. Also, the central buddha is usually flanked by the sunlight and moonlight bodhisattvas (indicated by the red and white spheres in their headdress).