The Buddha Scroll

by Thomas Cleary

What appears at first to be a small, attractively bound book folds out accordion-fashion to become a one-of-a-kind art a striking, 36-foot-long Qing dynasty scroll. A replica of a work originally created in eighteenth-century China, the scroll includes more than 600 portraits large and small—buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, devas, and historical figures; as well as over 2,000 images of other kinds—animals, flowers, Buddhist symbols, buildings, and landscapes. The scroll demonstrates, too, the rich plurality of Buddhist sects that existed in China at that time, including images and symbols from the Zen, Hua-yen, Tiantai, Pure Land, and Tantric schools. The scroll is introduced by Thomas Cleary, the renowned translator and authority on Buddhist texts.

Genres: Art

2 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2002

About the author

Dr. Thomas Francis Cleary, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University; J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley), was a prolific translator of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, with a particular emphasis on popular translations of Mahāyāna works relevant to the Chan, Zen, and Soen systems.

Reviews

[O. Dazhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a colorful view of the Chinese Buddhist pantheon, this is it.