A rare inscribed gilt bronze votive altar group of Amitabha, Buddha of the Western Paradise China, Tang Dynasty, dated 687 AD

probably invoking a vision of the Western Paradise, with separate figural components set in a square pedestal base with high corner legs, barbed aprons and splayed feet, with a small kneeling Atlas figure supporting either a stupa or a lotus flower framed by scrolling leaves, rising before a very large figure of Amitabha, seated in dhyanasana upon a high lotus throne of octagonal section with lobed lappets and tasseled swags, his robes falling over the lotus petals on the front, wrapping around his shoulders and held secure in his resting right hand leaving the left hand raised in abhaya mudra, the benevolent face framed with a pierced circular aureole of flames rising to a peak, all flanked by Ananda holding a long-handled censer and Kasyapa holding an almsbowl, a figure of a bodhisattva holding possibly a feather whisk or vajra-club standing on a lotus, a pair of muscular lokapala in opposing poses on rockwork with fluttering scarves, and a small seated lion, all framed by four corner balustrades set with lotus-bud finials

The inscription can be translated 'On the twenty-third day of the tenth month in the second year of Chuigong, Chen Sigong and his younger brother(s) and sister(s) respectfully made this Amida group for their deceased father and mother, for protection and support'.

The 'Pure Land' doctrine, expressed in texts such as the Lotus Sutra, wherein salvation was available merely by the invocation of the name of the Buddha Amitabha, became highly popular at various periods during the turbulent history of the Tang Dynasty, and it is significant to note that the present altar group was dedicated only a few years after empress Wu Zetian usurped the imperial throne in AD 684. Empress Wu viewed herself as an incarnation of the Buddha Amitabha and instituted revisions of Buddhist doctrine and several purges of the Buddhist church. The donors of this altar, as expressed in their dedication, may have commissioned the present bronze to honor the souls of their deceased parents, but also perhaps to seek divine protection during a time of civil strife.

The present altar presents many key tenets of the 'Pure Land' doctrine succinctly and powerfully. The altar itself is incised with rolling wave-forms, recalling the muddy waters of ignorance and desire, from which the soul of the initiate rises like a lotus blossom, possibly represented by the small central kneeling figure. The figures increase in size and proportion according to their divinity, with the correspondingly gigantic figure of Buddha reassuring the devotee to 'fear not'. With its depth of detail and relative completeness, this group is particularly important, and is in effect a three-dimensional equivalent of various Pure Land paintings of Amitabha.

Compare the famous large Sui Dynasty altar group dated 584 AD, discovered near Xi'an, now in the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, included in the exhibition The Glory of the Silk Road: Art from Ancient China, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, 2003, cat.no.72 and illustrated on the catalogue cover. A somewhat smaller and much simpler group in the British Museum was included in the Museum's exhibition Buddhism: Art and Faith, London, 1985, cat.no.292; and another smaller group in the Shanghai Museum, published in Ji Chong Jian, The Buddhist Bronzes, Taipei, 1994, pl.166. Two other larger groups in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco are illustrated in Ren?Yvon Lefebvre d'Argenc? Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1974, pls.92 and 93.