Colored glass brick with bowl Buddha statue

[Brick for Buddha with Bowl]

Brick for Buddha with Bowl with Glass, 21th year of Yongle of Ming Dynasty (1423), 21.5cm high and 14.6cm wide
Buddha’s bun, big ears, slightly long cheeks, left hand drooping, right hand holding bowl, wearing blue cassocks, and sitting on a reclining lotus seat. On the upper side of the brick is the inscription “Yongle Temple Pagoda”, and on both sides there is a column of inscription. On the right is “Yongle Temple Burning at Baojun Mountain in West Beijing”, on the left is “Built in the 21st year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty”, and on the top of the brick is also the inscription “Daming Official Kiln”. The back of the brick has six raised transverse ribs for inlaying with the tower body
In the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, it was popular to use colored glass to build Buddha statues and pagodas. The famous tower of the Great Baoen Temple in Nanjing was built by the Yongle Emperor for his biological mother. There are no documents about Yongle Temple at Baojun Mountain in the west of Beijing at present. The two sitting statues of Yongle Temple with glass bowl in the Palace Museum can fill the gap in the documents. From the perspective of time, Yongle Temple should be built after the Emperor Yongle moved his capital to Beijing, and the glaze fired was from the official kiln, which is probably closely related to the government’s Buddhist policy.