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| View Original: | Chinese - Head of a Guardian King - Walters 258.jpg (1264x1799) | |||
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| Keywords: Chinese - Head of a Guardian King - Walters 258.jpg This stone head is Buddhist in inspiration It is carved with bulging features almost as if it had been kneaded out of clay There is a patterned beard and neat mustache; the eyebrows bridge of the nose and cheeks all swell outward In the Buddhist cosmological system conceived in India a mountain stands in the center of our world On the middle slopes of this mountain dwell four heavenly kings who guard the four directions Which of the four kings this head represents is not certain but he may be Virudhaka in Sanskrit; Cengchang Tseng-ch'ang in Chinese the regent of the south He has been given a beard and mustache like those of the Central Asian traders found in contemporaneous tomb sculpture Intact sculptures of Cengchang Tseng-ch'ang show him with one foot on the head of a demon; his raised right arm holds a lance his left hand is on his waist The statue from which this head came was probably part of an ensemble in one of the Buddhist cave temples of Tang T'ang China It would have flanked an image of the Buddha standing at the center of the world Ceramic images of heavenly kings were also placed in tombs as guardians; their facial features are as vigorously modeled as those of this stone head century 7 stone cm 47 26 5 accession number 25 8 5244 Yamanaka Co New York Henry Walters Baltimore date of acquisition unknown by purchase Walters Art Museum Henry Walters Acquired by Henry Walters place of origin China Walters Art Museum license Art of China in the Walters Art Museum Media contributed by the Walters Art Museum needs category review Buddhist statues of the Tang Dynasty Statues of men of the Tang Dynasty | ||||
