Chinese Art. Stephen W. Bushell

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      The difference between Lamaism and the ordinary form of Chinese Buddhism is shown most strongly by their discordant conceptions of Maitreya, the coming Buddha. His Chinese statuette, under the name of Milo Fo, is placed in the vestibule of a temple, and he is also worshipped in many private houses and shops, so he is almost as popular a divinity among men as Kuan Yin, the so-called “goddess of mercy,” is among Chinese women. In Japan, Hotei, the merry monk with a hempen bag, is claimed by some to be an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, and is there endowed with traits in the spirit of playful reverence which characterises the Japanese artist.

      The Lama conception of Maitreya, on the contrary, is that of a dignified and colossal figure robed as a prince with the jewelled coronet of a bodhisattva, in a ring above the other crests of the roofs of a lamasery, or occasionally carved on the face of a cliff. There is a gigantic image of Maitreya in the Temple of Yonghe, at Peking, made of wood, over twenty-six meters high, the body of which passes through several successive storeys of the lofty building in which it is installed. The devout votary must climb a number of winding staircases to circumambulate the sacred effigy in the orthodox way, until he finally reaches the immense head. Yung Ho Kung was the residence of the Emperor Yung Cheng before he came to the throne, and it was dedicated to the Lama church, in accordance with the usual custom, when he succeeded in 1722. When the Emperor visits the temple a lamp is lit over the head of Maitreya, and a huge praying wheel on the left, which reaches upwards as high as the image, is set in motion on the occasion. The resident lamas, mostly Mongols, number some 1,500, under the rule of a Gegen, or living Buddha, of Tibetan birth, who rejoices in the title of Changcha-Hutuktu Lalitavajra.

      Lamaism may be said to rank as the State church of the reigning Manchu dynasty. No other Buddhist temples are permitted to be built inside the walls of the imperial city, and bands of Lama priests are admitted into the palace on various occasions, when evil spirits have to be exorcised, or when music is required at imperial funerals.

      The Lama temple was built by the Emperor K’ang Hsi, in the vicinity of the summer residence at Jehol, outside the Great Wall of China.

      The temple is built in the style of the famous palace-temple of Potala at Lhasa, the residence of the Dalai Lama. Built in 1771 Putuo Zongcheng Temple in Chengde, imitating the style of the Potala Palace, the temple is also named Little Potala Palace. This temple was built for celebrating the emperor Qianlong’s birthday. But the resemblance is only superficial; deceptive as it may be when seen at a distance from one of the pavilions in the imperial park, on closer inspection the apparently storied walls prove to be a mere shell, with doors and windows all unperforated. The temple buildings erected upon the hill behind, the double roofs of which appear above the walls in the picture, are really planned in the conventional lines of the t’ing and finished after the ordinary canons of Chinese architecture.

      The Flower Pagoda at the Liu Rong (‘Six Banyan Trees’), 1097.

      Guangzhou, Guangdong (Kwangtung).

      The Temple of the Six Banyan Trees is an ancient Buddhist temple built in Guangzhou in 537. It was originally called the Baozhuangyan Temple, but today it carries the name given by the great writer Su Dongpo in the Sung Dynasty (960–1279). It is said that he visited the temple while returning to the north. During his visit, he found six particularly striking banyan trees there. The temple burned down and was rebuilt in the Northern Sung Dynasty. Flower Pagoda, the main structure of the temple, was built in 1097 and named for its colorful exterior. It was rebuilt again 1373 A. D. after another fire and restored in 1900.

      A bronze temple stands on the southern slope of the hill of Wan Shou Shan, standing 7.55 meters tall and weighing more than 200,000 kilograms. Every adornement was executed with the lost wax method. Inside is a list of the craftsmen who took part in its construction. Every detail of the temple is executed in bronze, the pillars, beams, tiles, tracery of doors and windows, and all ornamental appendages having been previously moulded in metal. This is one of the few buildings which defied the fire in 1860. It stands on a marble foundation with carved railings and steps. The miniature stupa, or dagaba, which crowns the crest of the roof, is an attribute of a Buddhist building, and this one, in fact, is intended to be a shrine for the historical Buddha, as it contains a gilded image of Sakyamuni enthroned on a lotus calyx, with the usual set of utensils for burning incense.

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