Yulin Cave 3- main panel (east wall)

Yulin Cave 3- main panel (east wall)

Depictions of buddhist Sacred Spaces, Eight great events of the Buddha's life

Depiction of white-thousand-armed Avalokitesvara (left panel) with buddhist land in background (Tibet), a Buddha statue (middle Panel) with depiction of the eight great events in the background (India), and a fifty-one headed deity (also form of Avalokitesvara) (right panel) with buddhist land in background (Tangut). The sculpture in the front of the image of the eight great events of the Buddha's life was possibly not part of the initial composition. The rest of the cave contains four maṇḍalas (in the corners of the cave), two panels of the western Pure Land on the south and north wall and two murals of the bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī
and Samantabhadra on the two sides of the west (entrance) wall with a scene of Xuanzang returning with scriptures.  And also scenes from the Buddha's life on the lower part of the entrance wall. The cave was renovated during the Yuan period (1279-1368) and the Qing period (1644-1911).

Pakhoutoua, Elena A. Reproducing the Sacred Place: The Eight Great Events of the Buddha’s Life and their Commemorative Stupas in the Medieval Art of Tibet (10th to 13th century), diss. University of Virginia, 2009, 319.

Elena A. Pakhoutoua

second part of 12th century

wall painting and sculpture

Yulin Cave 3, Anxi, Gansu province in north-western China

Sculpture and painting in background