A Path to Paradise: Reevluating Pure Land Belief in the Northern Dynasties with the Nine-Buddha Halo Bronze Shrines

Portable bronze shrines with a seated Buddha figure with a nine-Buddha halo on the front and delicate reliefs on the back have not been properly studied, yet appear to be an important type in the Northern Dynasties (386-581). I have identified fifteen such shrines which I divided into three subtypes, dateable to 420-450, 450-500, and 500-550, according to the typology of the flame-patterns on the main Buddha’s aureole. Previous scholars treat the three subtypes as contemporaneous work and generally follow the date of “Taihe Reign” (477-499) suggested by Matsubara Saburō. Based on stylistic comparisons with sculptures in cave-temples at Binglingsi and Maijishan, I associate this type of shrine with the region of southeastern Gansu and western Shaanxi. The top register of the back relief has been identified as “Maitreya in Tusita Heaven”, first by Matsubara. However, by identifying the two seated figures on the top of the back relief as beings “reborn on lotuses,” I argue that the top register represents Sukhāvatī. If so, it would be the earliest existing representation of Sukhāvatī in China. The bottom register shows two Buddhas preaching in a niche, representing the Treasure Stupa chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. As sūtras are written records of Śākyamuni’s oral lectures, I argue that through visually constructing the eight Buddhas in the middle register as a shared audience for the two lectures represented above and below them, this relief transforms the practitioners who read the Lotus Sūtra into the audience of Amitāyus in Sukhāvatī. Thus, this transformation expresses the “causal relationship between ‘hearing the Lotūs Sūtra and cultivating oneself according to its instructions’ and ‘ascending to Sukhāvatī,’” as stated in the Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja chapter of the Lotus sūtra. The shrines offer new materials to reevaluate Pure Land Belief which was traditionally considered unpopular in fifth century China.