During the past year, the
Benton County Historical Museum has been fortunate to have Alicia James
volunteering in the collections department.
Alicia has a masters' degree in Art History and has completed course
work for her doctorate. Her area of
specialization is Asian art, with a focus on the art of Tibet and the influence
of Buddhism and indigenous religions.
She has been examining some of the museums many Asian artifacts. When I
asked her what some of her favorite objects were, she mentioned two in addition
to the Der Ling opera costume shown in my last post.
One she liked for the realism
and level of detail is this painted silk scroll of an official of the Qing
dynasty (1644-1911). He is seated on
chair draped with a tiger skin and is wearing a dragon and cloud brocade
gown. The mandarin badge (light blue
square) on his overcoat depicts a qilin, which indicates someone of the first
rank in the military. A qilin is a
mythical Chinese creature with the body of an oxen or deer covered in scales,
with a head like a dragon with one or two horns. Some have called it the
Chinese unicorn. The peacock feather in
his cap would have been bestowed by the emperor for some extraordinary feat.
The second object she mentioned
is this Ming dynasty (1368-1644) cast bronze statue. It depicts the Medicine Buddha or Buddha of
healing. He is seated in the lotus position on a double-lotus throne. In China, the lotus is a symbol of beauty,
purity, and spiritual perfection. In his right hand is the stem of a medicinal
aruna fruit. A translation of the inscription on the back says that it was made
by the Stone Buddha Temple in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hung-chih
(1502).
Chinese Buddhists recite the
Medicine Buddha mantra to ease sickness, both mental and physical.
By
Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath,
Oregon
No comments:
Post a Comment