Avalokitesvara in white portrait page

[Avalokitesvara in White]

Avalokitesvara in White, five generations, silk, colored, 52 cm vertically and 55.2 cm horizontally. Dunhuang paintings
On the left side of the picture is Guanyin in white, with a slightly right face, bent legs and sitting on a square waist platform. He wears a high bun on his head, a crown of Buddha, a white yarn on his top, a necklace, a red monk’s branch inside and a white cassock outside. The face is plump and the shape has become feminine. The right hand holds the willow branch, the left hand hangs and carries the clean bottle on the left knee, and steps on the lotus with bare feet. Guanyin has an umbrella canopy on the top of his head, and a head light and body light behind him. He looks natural and peaceful. Potted flowers and peonies are offered on the hexagonal column-shaped lotus platform. On the right is a male donor, facing Guanyin, kneeling on a square carpet, wearing Futou, wearing a pale yellow robe, wearing a jade belt, holding a magpie tail censer, with clear smoke. At the back of the room stood a waiter, wearing a bun, holding a fan in his right hand and a bundle in his left hand. In the above auspicious clouds, there are four vajra pestles in the lotus seat, and then there are children flying in the sky, taking the auspicious cloud as a pouring flower, and there are (leaves and peaches scattered in the sky. In the background, there is a row of vermilion balustrades, and there is a rectangular title box between Guanyin and the donor, with no words in it. The painting is rich in content, rigorous in structure and echoes each other. The lines are mainly painted with iron lines, which are strong and powerful. The applied colors are mainly green, red and white. Some headdresses and streamers are painted with gold, and the colors are rich and colorful
Guanyin in white, also known as Guanyin in white and Guanyin in white residence, is one of the many features presented by Guanyin Bodhisattva. White is a metaphor of purity, which symbolizes the heart of Bodhi and indicates that Guanyin has the heart of Bodhi. According to the Sutra “Avalokitesvara Avalokitesvara Appears in All Kinds of Wishes and Eliminates All Things”, the image of Avalokitesvara Avalokitesvara should be painted with white cloth when offering this Avalokitesvara – wearing white clothes, sitting on a lotus seat, holding a lotus in one hand and a clean bottle in the other. It is said that after reciting the mantra of the White Guanyin Sutra, the White Guanyin can appear, and can get whatever the donor wants. Therefore, Guanyin in white is also one of the Guanyin Bodhisattvas that are often worshipped by the Tantric School. Many ancient Chinese painters have painted the Avalokitesvara in white, which was popular after the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Among the Dunhuang paintings, the Avalokitesvara in white is rare. This painting is the only early work in China
This Dunhuang painting was donated to the Western Sichuan Cultural Relics Management Committee by Mr. Su Zhuozhang in early 1951. It was exhibited at the Western Sichuan Cultural Relics Exhibition in April. It was considered as “the best Dunhuang stone chamber found in China” at that time. Later, the National Cutural Heritage Administration assigned the exhibition to the Palace Museum, and the 1954 exhibition was held in Huangji Hall, the first exhibition room of the painting hall of the Palace Museum. In 1959, the Palace Museum set up the art museum of the past dynasties, and the page of the “Bai Yi Guan Audio and Video” was displayed in the basic display as an art treasure of the past dynasties. He has been included in two books: Complete Collection of Chinese Art, Volume of Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, and List of Art Museums in the Palace Museum.