|
Description:
Creator's Description: This essay considers the practice of coloring Buddhist sacred maps by comparing two hand-colored xylographs of Wutai shan derived from the same set of woodblocks that were carved in 1846 by Mongolian lama Lhündrup at Wutai shan’s Cifu Temple. Despite their origin in the same set of blocks, notable differences in the style, technique, and choice of coloring reveal two divergent visions of the sacred place. These differences reflect two modes of devotion toward the mountain range: in the print from the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, Wutai shan is presented as an eternal, scriptural, and idealized landscape, and in the print from the Museum of Cultures in Helsinki, Wutai shan is seen as a localized, lived, and familiar terrain. An examination of these two differently colored maps sheds light on how, why, and what makes a sacred mountain sacred for various participants of Wutai shan’s pilgrimage culture. (2011-12-31)
|
