Base for an Image of Amitabha, the Victorious (Jina) Buddha of Infinite Light

My gallery Comment Tag Share
View comments
No comments have been posted yet.
Add a comment
Please log in to add comments.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
Current tags
This item has not been tagged yet.
Please log in to add tags.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Base for an Image of Amitabha, the Victorious (Jina) Buddha of Infinite Light

Tibet, 1190-1285
Sculpture
Wood with mineral pigments and gilding
7 x 13 1/2 x 9 3/4 in. (17.78 x 34.29 x 24.77 cm)
Gift of Ruth Hayward, Ph.D. and Robert Hayward, M.D., in honor of the Panchen Lama, an emanation of Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, through the 2010 Collectors Committee (M.2010.78.4)
South and Southeast Asian Art
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

...
This image base can be associated iconographically with Amitabha, the Victorious (Jina) Buddha of Infinite Light. The principal panel in the center of the front is adorned with a lotus, the emblem of Amitabha as the head of the Lotus (padma) Family of Buddhas that symbolize love, compassion, and the transformation of desire into wisdom. It is an elaborate composition with a central stalk surmounted by an open blossom and multiple tendrils growing out of the bottom that morph into broad foliage. The lotus is flanked by two peacocks (mayura), the twin mount (vahana) of Amitabha. The based is painted sunset red, which is the color of Amitabha as the Lord of the Sukhavati (blissful) Paradise or Western Pure Land believed to be located in the West. Above and below the central panels are wide borders of scrolling foliage and entwined mythical aquatic creatures (makara). The slot on the top rear of the base was for inserting an image aureole (prabhavali). See David Kamansky, ed., Wooden Wonders: Tibetan Furniture in Secular and Religious Life (Pasadena: Pacific Asia Museum and Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2004), p. 320, no. 139. See also M.2010.81.7.
More...