Curious Chinese painting.

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Huseng
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Curious Chinese painting.

Post by Huseng »

I found an interesting 9th century Chinese painting with two interesting features. Firstly, the Indian figures look sufficiently Indian (as opposed to really Chinese like they are often portrayed). The second is that Maudgalyāyana is quite fair compared to his companions. The Buddha of course is golden in colour.

Here Maudgalyāyana is on the left and Śāriputra is on the right with bodhisattvas on the far sides.

Image

I imagine the artist read that Maudgalyāyana was fair skinned. Śāriputra also has really big eyes.
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Rakshasa
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Re: Curious Chinese painting.

Post by Rakshasa »

The one on the left looks Mongoloid to me (Chinese?).

Sariputra was an Indo-Aryan Brahmin so I wont be surprised if the tradition is that he was fair complexioned. Back in those days, the Indo-Aryans had still not mixed with the people of Magadha....
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pueraeternus
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Re: Curious Chinese painting.

Post by pueraeternus »

Huseng wrote:The second is that Maudgalyāyana is quite fair compared to his companions. The Buddha of course is golden in colour.
Interesting! Actually, in the Sri Lanka tradition, Maudgalyayana is depicted as dark blue-skinned (according to the Buddhavamsa):

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"Men must want to do things out of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness - they cannot work and their civilization collapses."
- A letter to CHOAM, attributed to the Preacher
Huseng
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Re: Curious Chinese painting.

Post by Huseng »

Rakshasa wrote:The one on the left looks Mongoloid to me (Chinese?).

Sariputra was an Indo-Aryan Brahmin so I wont be surprised if the tradition is that he was fair complexioned. Back in those days, the Indo-Aryans had still not mixed with the people of Magadha....
Śāriputra is the second from the far right. Maudgalyāyana is the fair skinned one.
plwk
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Re: Curious Chinese painting.

Post by plwk »

Śāriputra also has really big eyes.
Maybe he saw something shocking.... :mrgreen:
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Kaji
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Re: Curious Chinese painting.

Post by Kaji »

Interestingly, the colour of Maudgalyāyana's sarira is dark brown (bottom), while Śāriputra's is light grey (top):
Image
Namas triya-dhvikānāṃ sarva tathāgatānām!
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Ukigumo
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Re: Curious Chinese painting.

Post by Ukigumo »

Huseng wrote:I imagine the artist read that Maudgalyāyana was fair skinned. Śāriputra also has really big eyes.
He looks like an anime character...

Image
All compound phenomena are like a dream;
a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning
That is how to meditate on them
That is how to observe them
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