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Musician Flute
- Title Translation: 长笛乐伎
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
Monster Kneeling
- Title Translation: 菩萨立像
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: Standing Bodhisattva, robed, holding flywhisk and unidentified object.
Pratyekabuddha Standing
- Title Translation: 辟支(缘觉)佛头
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: Statue of Pratyekabuddha made of hard stone, colored and darkened by age. There are traces of dark red and brown paint and slight traces of green and blue on the piece. It is a standing figure, the hands holding a lotus bud, with heavy hands and large neck. The draperies are very massive and simple. The statue has a slightly upturned face with eyes almost closed with long ears and a cap-like arrangement of hair. It has bare feet with no pedesta but there is a tang that extends below the statuel. C113, C150 and C151 are from Cave #2 of the Southern Xiangtangshan. C113 and C151 may not from the same group judging from their different execution.
Lions Relief
- Title Translation: 狮子浮雕
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: Among the niches in this altar frontal that contain images of the Buddha, the scene at the top right is from the Lotus Sutra, a fundemental Mahayana Buddhist text. When this doctorine was preached by Sakyamuni, the Buddha of the present era, to a great assembly of celestial and earthly beings, the relics of Prabhutaratna, the Buddha of the past, arose and Prabhutaratna materialized. The relief carving also includes an incense burner between two seated lions. The lion as a Buddhist guardian figure has been a common motif in Chinese art since the introduction of Buddhism in China.
Monster Kneeling
- Title Translation: 跪鬼神
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
Monster Squatting Bird
- Title Translation: 鬼神蹲鸟
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
Bodhisattva Head
- Title Translation: 菩萨头
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: This is the head of the bodhisattva Maitreya, who is thought to be waiting in a heaven for the moment when he will be born to become the next Buddha on this earth. The expression on his face is serene as he waits in meditative bliss. Ribbons stream down the sides of his head from the beautifully articulated crown. Heavy earrings pull his earlobes down to his shoulders.
Bodhisattva Seated
- Title Translation: 菩萨坐像
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: With beautifully stylized drapery and heavy ornaments, this bodhisattva looks powerful and introspective, seated in a yogic posture of meditation. His right hand is held up in a gesture that means, “Do not be afraid.” His left hand is in the gift-giving gesture. These hand positions simultaneously reassure supplicants and promise them that their pious wishes will be granted.
Monster Kneeling
- Title Translation: 跪鬼神
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
Musician Sheng
- Title Translation: 菩萨头
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: This magnificent sculpture comes from an important complex of mountainside Buddhist shrines hewn from the living rock at Xiangtangshan in Hebei province. It originally belonged to a full-length statue of a bodhisattva (an enlightened being who has postponed nirvana in order to help achieve salvation for others); the vase in the center of the crown may identify the figure as Mahāsthāmaprāpta, one of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism. The principal grottoes at Xiangtangshan were carved during the short-lived Northern Qi dynasty (550-77), which ruled much of northern China prior to the reunification of the country in 589 under the Sui (589-618).
Guardian King
- Title Translation: 天王、护法力士
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
Buddha Head
- Title Translation: 佛头
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: According to Buddhist tradition, when the young prince Sakyamuni resolved to seek spiritual enlightenment, he discarded his courtly garments and cut off his long hair. In Indian and East Asian sculpture, the tonsured Buddha is occasionally shown as bald, but more often he is portrayed as seen here, with a head of tiny, snail-shaped curls. This head of a Buddha was originally part of an impressive sculptural diorama of life-size figures carved into the living rock at Xiangtangshan (Mountain of Echoing Halls), a site not far from the Northern Qi capital of Ye. More than ten caves were excavated at Xiangtangshan during the third quarter of the sixth century, under the patronage of the Northern Qi ruling family and nobles.
Bodhisattva Standing
- Title Translation: 菩萨立像
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
- Work Description: Statue of bodhisattva made of hard, dark-grey limestone which has stained and discolored with age. There are traces of green, red and blue pigment on the piece. It is almost identical with C113 but there is no figure in the aureole of the tiara. C113, C150 and C151 are from Cave #2 of the Southern Xiangtangshan. C150 could be from the front shrine, one of the three shrines surrounded by the central pillar.
Bodhisattva Hand
- Title Translation: 菩萨手
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves
Monster Kneeling
- Title Translation: 跪鬼神
- Period: Northern Qi, 550-577 C.E.
- Project: Xiangtangshan Caves