The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide

Van Alphen, Jan; Debreczeny, Karl; Pakhoutova, Elena; Luczanits, Christian

ISBN 10: 908586643X / ISBN 13: 9789085866435

Editore: Rubin Museum of Art / BAI, 2013

Riguardo questo articolo

Hardbound, no dust jacket, as issued.

Codice articolo 97918

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide
• Editore: Rubin Museum of Art / BAI
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 908586643X
• ISBN 13: 9789085866435
• Rilegatura: Hardcover
• Condizione: Very Good
• Condizione della sovraccoperta: No Jacket, As Issued
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • Art

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

This book is the culmination of a long story that began with the acquisition of fifty-four paintings from an elderly priest, who had served in a Belgian mission in Inner Mongolia in the 1920s, by the Ethnographic Museum of Antwerp in 1977.

The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide focuses on this extremely rare group of richly-detailed album leaves which illustrate the visualization practice of Sarvavid Vairocana, the All-Knowing Buddha. This beautifully illustrated step-by-step visual guide provides a unique glimpse into Tibetan Buddhist meditation and ritual, normally instruction restricted to oral transmission by a teacher to his initiated disciple. These practices are usually not meant to be depicted and this is one of the only albums known to exist in which the meditative visualization process is spelled out visually. While the ritual narrative of these unusual paintings is Tibetan Buddhist in content they are expressed in a vivid Chinese aesthetic, a unique product of cultural translation through its Mongolian patrons. The album exemplifies rich patterns of cross-cultural exchange that characterized the Qing Empire.

Three essays by the Rubin Museum curators explore different aspects of Vairocana and contextualize the album, illustrated with approximately twenty-five images, followed by the leaves themselves which are featured in fifty-four full-page plates with accompanying commentary on their ritual and artistic content.

Dalla quarta di copertina

This publication and the related exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art, in September 2013, are the culmination of a long but intermittent story that began with the acquisition of fifty-four paintings directly from an elderly priest, who had served in the Belgian mission in Inner Mongolia for many years, beginning in the 1920s. Father Raphael Verbois gave the paintings in 1977 to the then Director of the Ethnographic Museum in Antwerp, Dr. Adriaan Claerhout. The set of paintings, what we refer to as the Antwerp album, forms the core of the current project. While initially they were thought to represent the life of the Buddha and some unknown tantric rituals, there is now scholarly unanimity about the fact that the life of the Buddha is just a small part of what the album represents. The major part deals with the meditation on the mandala of Sarvavid Vairocana, who is the central Buddha in the constellation of the five Dhyani Buddhas, or Meditation Buddhas. Sarvavid is Sanskrit, meaning "All-knowing."

Although some initial research was done to thus clarify the import of the album, it has been little seen or published since its acquisition by the Ethnographic Museum. With this publication, the curators at the Rubin Museum offer new research and further clarification: the album's possible historical context (Karl Debreczeny), meanings and ritual use (Elena Pakhoutova), and the rise of Buddha Vairocana and the connection to Esoteric Buddhism (Christian Luczanits). These essays should read as the reopening of a scholarly conversation on the album, and it is hoped that with this publication new information will come to light on this fascinating and unusual set of paintings

In addition to the fifty-four plates with commentary by the Rubin Museum curators, the three essays are illustrated with approximately twenty-five additional images of the All-knowing Buddha and related material.