Interpretation
Depending on the Buddhist sect, lohans are understood as models for individual salvation or as intermediaries between humanity and Buddhist paradise, much like bodhisattvas. The extreme emaciated form of this figure recalls a period during the historical Buddha’s meditation in which he refrained from worldly goods, including food. This act served as a model for others who sought enlightenment through intense ascetic practice.
An old man is represented as a gaunt ascetic seated in meditation. His lowered head, furrowed brow, and partially closed eyes enhance the impression that he is lost in thought. The elongated ear lobes, high nose, mustache, beard, and bald pate with hair on the sides and back suggest a foreign ethnicity, and may derive stylistically from a tradition of ascetic sculptures in India. Bearded ascetic figures in this posture have been identified either as the Shakyamuni Buddha, shown with a protruding crown (usnisa) on the top of his head and a circle of hair (urna) between his brows, or as a lohan, guardian of the Buddhist Law, without the urna and usnisa. The portrayal of lohans as beings with profound enlightenment, akin to that of bodhisattvas, is typical of Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia. They served as intermediaries for universal salvation between humanity and Buddhist paradise. At the same time, the original ideal of the lohan, as a model of individual salvation in Theravada Buddhism, persists in some images. The figure’s emaciation recalls the historical Buddha’s meditation beneath the Bodhi tree, which served as a model for others who sought enlightenment through intense ascetic practice. The iconography seems to have emerged in China during the Yuan dynasty, but it is uncertain how such sculptures were presented and worshiped. One possibility is that they were donated as objects for meditation in remote Buddhist mountain shrines.
Information
- Title
- Lohan as an ascetic
- Object Number
- y1972-16
- Medium
- Gilded lacquer with traces of white and red pigments
- Dimensions
- h. 28 cm., w. 31 cm., d. 32 cm. (11 x 12 3/16 x 12 5/8 in.)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, gift of David Steadman, Graduate School Class of 1974, and Mrs. Steadman, in honor of Robert P. Griffing Jr., Graduate School Class of 1940
- Culture
- Chinese
- Period
- Yuan dynasty
- Place made
- Asia, China
- Techniques
- "Acquisitions 1972", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 32, no. 1 (1973): p. 20-30., p. 27 (illus.), p. 30
- "[Chronique des arts et de la curiosité: supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts, no. 1249 (Feb., 1973)]", Chronique des arts et de la curiosité: supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts, no. 1249 (Feb., 1973)., p. 114, fig. 403
- Eugenia S. Robbins, "College museum notes", Art journal 32, no. 3 (Spring, 1973): p. 312-324+326., p. 314 illus.
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 209 illus.
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 16 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)
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