Publication details
Jokhang's Bathing Maitreya : The Story of an Unknown Statue and its Photographs
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Peer-reviewed scientific article |
| Magazine / Source | Religio |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.83221 |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.5817/Rel2025-42084 |
| Keywords | Bathing Maitreya; Jokhang; Lhasa; Tibetan Buddhism; Maitreya; Josef Vaniš; Vladimír Sís; Ernst Krause; historical photographs |
| Description | The paper deals with one statue, located in the most sacred Tibetan Buddhist temple Jokhang in Lhasa, bearing the somewhat mysterious name of Bathing Maitreya. The 11th century statue is depicted in just two photographs and disappeared during the so-called Cultural Revolution in 1966. The first black and white photograph is by Ernst Krause from 1939, the second is in colour by Josef Vaniš from 1954. The paper places both photographs in their proper historical, religious and factual context. For the first time it publishes one of them, the Vaniš one, in its entirety, i.e. uncut, and correctly located and described. And for the second photograph, Krause's, the paper correctly identifies for the first time what it depicts. It is thus a visual reconstruction of a unique Tibetan statue, a replica of which is now in Lhasa in the same place as the original. The paper deals with one statue, located in the most sacred Tibetan Buddhist temple Jokhang in Lhasa, bearing the somewhat mysterious name of Bathing Maitreya. The 11th century statue is depicted in just two photographs and disappeared during the so-called Cultural Revolution in 1966. The first black and white photograph is by Ernst Krause from 1939, the second is in colour by Josef Vaniš from 1954. The paper places both photographs in their proper historical, religious and factual context. For the first time it publishes one of them, the Vaniš one, in its entirety, i.e. uncut, and correctly located and described. And for the second photograph, Krause's, the paper correctly identifies for the first time what it depicts. It is thus a visual reconstruction of a unique Tibetan statue, a replica of which is now in Lhasa in the same place as the original. The paper deals with one statue, located in the most sacred Tibetan Buddhist temple Jokhang in Lhasa, bearing the somewhat mysterious name of Bathing Maitreya. The 11th century statue is depicted in just two photographs and disappeared during the so-called Cultural Revolution in 1966. The first black and white photograph is by Ernst Krause from 1939, the second is in colour by Josef Vaniš from 1954. The paper places both photographs in their proper historical, religious and factual context. For the first time it publishes one of them, the Vaniš one, in its entirety, i.e. uncut, and correctly located and described. And for the second photograph, Krause's, the paper correctly identifies for the first time what it depicts. It is thus a visual reconstruction of a unique Tibetan statue, a replica of which is now in Lhasa in the same place as the original. The paper deals with one statue, located in the most sacred Tibetan Buddhist temple Jokhang in Lhasa, bearing the somewhat mysterious name of Bathing Maitreya. The 11th century statue is depicted in just two photographs and disappeared during the so-called Cultural Revolution in 1966. The first black and white photograph is by Ernst Krause from 1939, the second is in colour by Josef Vaniš from 1954. The paper places both photographs in their proper historical, religious and factual context. For the first time it publishes one of them, the Vaniš one, in its entirety, i.e. uncut, and correctly located and described. And for the second photograph, Krause's, the paper correctly identifies for the first time what it depicts. It is thus a visual reconstruction of a unique Tibetan statue, a replica of which is now in Lhasa in the same place as the original. |
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