Buddhist

Iconography at
the MFA
Ji Hyang
Padma, Ph.D.
A Quick Guide Into
Iconography: the
Marks of a Buddha/
32 Lakshanas

• Elongated earlobes
• Long toes and fingers
• Pliant hands and feet
• Full, round shoulders
• Soles, palms, shoulders and crown of the head well rounded
• Area below armpits well-filled
• Urna curl between eyebrows
• Ten- foot aura/ aureole
• Protuberance on crown of head
• Level feet
• Mark of a spoked wheel on the soles

• --these characteristics described in the Pali Canon as the “32

Lakshanas”
• --some characteristics shared by Bodhisattvas
• --ALSO: notice mudras.
 Stupas were the earliest form of
Early Indian Art at the MFA Buddhist art- a way of honoring the
historical Buddha.

This stupa railing would have been a

pilgrimage within a pilgrimage, since it
shows the railing Ashoka created
around the Bodhi Tree.

Mathura, India, 100 BCE

Kusanas/ Kushan Empire (King Kaniska 127-150 CE)
30-375 CE
EARLY BUDDHIST ART at MFA

India. 2nd C CE. Sandstone.

Wall of a stupa. Buddha Same sandstone, reverse. 3rd C CE.
bathing at river. Depicts a stupa and the thousand-
Represented through spoked wheel of Dharma.
footprints. Iconography similar to Sun.
 Surya, god of the
sun, appears in
the Rig Veda,
riding a chariot.
The Wheel
becomes his
iconography.

While the use of wheel symbolism dates

to 2500 BCE, It is within Buddhism that
the Wheel is adopted from the
chakravartin, the wheel-turner (man of
power) and used alone, to symbolize the
Wheel of the Dharma, the Eightfold Path Prior to Buddhism, the wheel of time
and the Buddha himself. was part of Vhshnu’s iconography
 • 331 BCE Alexander the Great conquered Gandhara/Achaemenid Empire, stopped at Punjab River.
Died three years later.
• Candagupta Maurya 324- 300 BCE. Mauryan Dynasty (India)

GANDHARA: • Ashoka, grandson of Candagupta 273-232 BCE. Buddhist king. Sent missionaries to Gandhara and to
Bactria.

CULTURAL •
•
After Ashoka, Greek Bactrian kingdom invaded. Apollodotus.
Menander (Questions of King Milinda w/ Nagasena) 165-130 BCE

CROSSROADS •
•
Kusanas/ Kushan Empire (King Kaniska 127-150 CE) 30-375 CE
For reference, early Mahayana: Nagarjuna: @150- 250 CE

• .
 Kushan Art at the MFA
• Maitreya Bodhisattva, the future
Buddha was one of the earliest
Bodhisattvas.
• Maitri= Sanskrit, friend.
• Shown as a nobleman.
• Often holds a kumbha vase in his
left hand, symbolizing sustenance.
• Expected to return during the last
kalpa to relieve suffering
• Maitreya is said to have given to
Asangha (4th C CE) the Yogachara
teachings.
• (see: Zen and Tibetan Ancestor
Vasubandu)
• Periodically, someone has claimed
to be Maitreya.
• Iconography: Vase. Hair. Clothing.
Qualities of a Buddha.

Maitreya, Pakistan, 3rd C CE

Kusanas/ Kushan Empire (King Kaniska 127-150 CE) 30-
375 CE
Madhura, India, mid- 5th
CE
• Qualities of a Buddha:
• Long ears, symmetry,,
protuberance at top of
head.
• Kapardin (seashell-like)
hairstyle

Buddha, Thailand, 8th C. The first Buddha is
said to have been brought to Thailand by
Nagasena around 150 BCE
Bodhisattva, Sarnath, India 8th C
Sarnath, where Buddha taught his first
sermon, was a center for the flourishing
of Buddhist art.
Northern Wei, China, 516. This was a
flourishing time for Buddhist art. Dunhuang
Caves opened in China. Empress Dowager Hu
is said to have emphasized the cosmological
Buddha, Vairocana who is timeless in
comparison to her time-bound rule. Note that
the Chinese draping of clothes obscures the
body, in contrast to the Gandharan Buddhas.
Sarcophogas for Sharira of Buddhist lineage ancestor Sramana Zhizhe, founder of
Tiantai. 8th C Tang Dynasty. An Aquarian who tried to universalize Buddhism. Within
Tiantai, all schools brought together via Lotus Sutra and Madhyamika. Meditating with
sacred relics is considered an important devotional practice in Tientai and Tendai.
…when, Venerable Sir, you speak of a
Bodhisattva, to what object does this term
Bodhisattva refer? Venerable Sir, I do not
perceive any object that is this object called
Bodhisattva. And not perceiving this
Bodhisattva, not apprehending this
Bodhisattva, how can I teach a Bodhisattva
about the perfection of wisdom?
• And yet, Venerable Lord, if when he is
spoken to and taught in this way, a
bodhisattva’s mind does not get depressed,
does not turn away and does not feel afraid,
this very bodhisattva, this great being, is to
be instructed in the perfection of wisdom.
This is the very perfection of wisdom of the
Bodhisattva, if he stands firm. – Gandhari
Perfection of Wisdom
• Yet, somehow we needed an image of
Bodhisattvas.
• Royal Ease posture, asymmetrical.
• Ornamented
• Holding a lotus flower in left hand
• Amita Buddha at crown.
=already very close to Tara iconography.
Avalokitesvara, India. 11th C
…when, Venerable Sir, you speak of a Bodhisattva, to what object does this term Bodhisattva
refer? Venerable Sir, I do not perceive any object that is this object called Bodhisattva. And not
perceiving this Bodhisattva, not apprehending this Bodhisattva, how can I teach a Bodhisattva
about the perfection of wisdom?

And yet, Venerable Lord, if when he is spoken to and taught in this way, a bodhisattva’s mind does
not get depressed, does not turn away and does not feel afraid, this very bodhisattva, this great
being, is to be instructed in the perfection of wisdom. This is the very perfection of wisdom of the
Bodhisattva, if he stands firm. – Gandhari Perfection of Wisdom

This Prajna Paramita dates to the Angkor period, Thailand, 10th- 11th C.

The Angkor kingdom received missionaries from Emperor Ashoka, was originally Mahayana-
blended with Hindu Shaivism. Cambodian kings considered themselves to be Dharma-kings, a
bodhisattvas.
• How Can We Understand the
Culturally Conditioned Forms of the
Bodhisattvas

• The metaphysics of the

Prajfiaparamita is in fact the
metaphysics of the vision and the
dream: a universe of glittering and
quicksilver change is precisely one
that can only be described as
empty. The vision and the dream
become the tools to dismantle the
hard categories we impose upon
reality, to reveal the eternal
flowing possibility in which the
Bodhisattva lives– Stephen Beyer

• --Eleven-headed Kuan Yin, Tang

Dynasty, China
• Esoteric tradition. Ten stages of
Enlightenment
• How Can We Understand the
Culturally Conditioned Forms of
the Bodhisattvas

• The metaphysics of the

Prajfiaparamita is in fact
the metaphysics of the
vision and the dream: a
universe of glittering and
quicksilver change is
precisely one that can only
be described as empty. The
vision and the dream
become the tools to
dismantle the hard
categories we impose upon
reality, to reveal the
eternal flowing possibility
in which the Bodhisattva
lives– Stephen Beyer
Mahasamghika: was an early Buddhist school of thought which is
thought to have been formed after the Second Buddhist Council of
383 BCE when it separated itself from another school, the
Sthaviravada (Sect of the Elders), over differences in Vinaya.

Originally, the Mahasangika school had described the Eastern

Paradise, and Akshobhya– as an intermediate existence from which
to attain Buddhahood.

Sthaviravada countered with the Western Paradise, and Amitabha,

per Dr. Charles Willemen, and the awareness of competing schools’
differences about each other’s differences ironically led to them
being subsumed under the umbrella term “Mahayana”.
 PURE LAND as ALTAR
• Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, is at the
center with aureole.
• Mudra of abhaya, ”fear not”/ protection
• Mudra of varada, granting.
• Tassels with pearls refer to bejeweled nature of
Sukhavati (land of bliss)
• Flowers raining from the sky. Phoenix (rebirth)
• Three levels of lotus- throne= three jewels
• 2 bodhisattvas, 2 monks, 2 donors.
• Persons are reborn in this realm within lotuses.
…When Vaidehi finished her prayer and raised her head,
she saw the World-Honored One, the Buddha
Shakyamuni. His body was the color of purple-gold and he
was seated on a hundred-jeweled lotus flower, attended
by Maudgalyayana on his left side and Ananda on his right.
Indra and Brahma, along with the other heavenly beings
guarding the world, hovered in the sky about him;
scattering heavenly blossoms like rain, they paid homage
to the Buddha.
I, the Tathagata, will now instruct you, Vaidehi and all the sentient beings of future
generations in the visualization of the Western Realm of Ultimate Bliss. By the power of the
Buddha, they will see that Pure Land as though seeing their own images in a bright mirror.
When they see that land of ultimate and wondrous joy, they will rejoice and immediately
acquire the insight into the non-origination of all existence.”.
 JIZO
• Holding khakkhara with
aureole.
• Vitarka, Teaching Mudra
• bejeweled as with many
Bodhisattvas

Other important iconographic mudras:

The Vajra or first of wisdom mudra used by
Dainichi/ Vairocana symbolizing the unity of
the five elements with spiritual
consciousness

The welcoming mudra used by

Amida Nyorai/ Amitabha
Questions?
Thoughts?

Apsara, a celestial being

 SLIDE INFORMATION ONLINE

https://chaplaincy.tufts.edu/buddhist/buddhist-iconography-via-the-mfa/