White marble torso of a Bodhisattva

Northern Wei or Northern Qi dynasty, 6th century AD

Height: 10 inches, 25.5 cm

Stylistically, this crisply carved torso is closely related to some of the statues and fragments found in the hoard of sculpture unearthed in 1996 at the site of the Longxing Temple at Qingzhou in Shandong province (1). The statues found at this site can be confidently dated from the end of the Northern Wei period in the 520s to the Northern Qi dynasty (550 - 577 AD).

Typical features of Northern Qi sculpture are the long necklaces with large bosses on either side of the chest and the elaborate folding of the robes. The copious amount of jewellery indicates that this is a depiction of a Bodhisattva (person aspiring to be the Buddha) rather than the Buddha, as the latter is more often than not rather soberly dressed.

1 See: Masterpieces of Buddhist Statuary from Qingzhou City, The National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing Qingzhou Municipal Museum (Beijing 1999)