Western Paradise (Taima Mandala)
Western Paradise (Taima Mandala). Japan, 1600s, Edo period. Ink, color, and gold on silk. Gift in honor of Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes by John Davis Hatch, 1971.64
Western Paradise (Taima Mandala)
Japan
1600s, Edo period
Ink, color, and gold on silk
Gift in honor of Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes by John Davis Hatch
1971.64
Amida Buddha's Western Paradise is masterfully depicted in this seventeenth-century ink and gold painting. The Taima mandala, as it is known, depicts the luxurious qualities associated with the Western Paradise. Amida sits at the center, presiding over his palaces and lakes and flanked by bodhisattvas. Small figures can be seen in the lotus buds opening on these lakes, a reference to the rebirth of devoted practitioners into the Western Paradise. Rebirth in the Pure Land was more likely for practitioners who adamantly recited the name of Amida, a mantra known in Japanese as "nembutsu."
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