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Bodhisattva and attendants
14th century
- Medium
- Ink and color on silk
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- H x W (image): 121.8 x 53.6 cm (47 15/16 x 21 1/8 in)
- Culture
- Buddhists
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Bodhisattvas are princely disciples of the Buddha who have attained enlightenment but choose to remain accessible until all sentient beings have been saved. They are therefore saviors, unlike luohans, who are protectors of the Buddha Law. In the Water-Land Prayer rite for which this painting was made, it would have been displayed in an upper chamber among the deities, as of looking down at the mortals below.
