TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

The present stele depicts the Maitreya Buddha seated at the center, flanked by two disciples and a pair of bodhisattvas positioned at the far ends. Above them, two intertwined beasts are carved at the curved top. This composition can be identified as Pure Land imagery, known in Chinese as Jile jingtu. A closely related stele can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (object no. 12.37.130; Roger Fund, 1912; https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/61506). The Metropolitan Museum stele, also dated to the Tang dynasty, depicts a similar scene along with a lengthy inscription incorporating a date, the 3rd year of the Zhide era, corresponding to AD 758.

For a comprehensive discussion of the iconography associated with Pure Land imagery, see D. C. Wong’s "Four Sichuan Buddhist Steles and the Beginnings of Pure Land Imagery in China", Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 51, 1998⁄1999, pp. 56–79.