Tinted lantern slide featuring the head and top half of a temple statue of a reclining Buddha. The picture may have been taken at the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha (Wofosi) near Beijing. Statues of the reclining Buddha differ in meaning depending upon the position of the right arm. If the arm is supporting the head (as in this picture), the statue signifies that the Buddha is resting, and evokes the story of the giant Asurindararhu, who refused to bow down before Buddha. Buddha then humbled the giant by showing him all of heaven and all of the heavenly creatures who were larger than the giant, humbling him. These statues tend to be very large, indicating the significance of the story. The slide was developed by the Photo Department, Tientsin Hui Wen Academy, Tientsin, China. This slide comes from a collection held by the Church of Scotland and generated by the medical missionary Charles Somerville, who worked for the London Missionary Society in Hankou from 1904 to 1914.
Format
lantern slides 8.2 x 8.2cm lantern slides photographs
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