Guanyin bodhisattva (Photo/Courtesy of Gao Jing)
Several Buddhist statues from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties were donated to the Putuoshan Buddhism Society on Friday by collector Li Wei along with musical instruments used in Buddhist ceremonies.
According to the Putuoshan Buddhism Society's Monk Daoci, these gold and copper statues, the largest set of Buddhist statues donated in China to date, will be put on display at an art museum on Mount Putuo in Zhejiang Province, a holy mountain revered by Buddhists in China.
Many of the donated statues date back to the reign of the Ming Dynasty's Yongle Emperor (1402-24) and were made by the palace craftsmen including a Zhantan Buddha Statue?, one of the earliest images of Buddha in the world, as well as a statue of the Guanyin bodhisattva, a well known Buddhist deity in China.
This is not the first time Li has donated Buddhist statues from his collection. In 2009, the collector donated 22 ancient Buddhist statues to the National Museum of China, including a rare statue that was the last of two such statues in the world.
According to the Putuoshan Buddhism Society, these donated statues, together with the musical instruments, will be used for academic research by the newly established Putuoshan Buddhist Image Institute.
