Forty-eight Buddhas of Measureless Life: Court Eunuch Patronage at the Sculpture Grottoes of Longmen

Amy McNair presents the Twentieth Sammy Yukuan Lee Lecture in Chinese Archaeology & Art

The centerpiece of the sculpted cave-shrines at Longmen is the colossal Vairocana assembly sponsored by Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu during the Tang dynasty (618-907). Fifty years after its completion, however, a consortium of court eunuchs added a display of forty-eight Buddha figures to its walls. This intrusive project allows us to explore questions about the spiritual and social purposes of Buddhist statuary and patronage in medieval China.

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Amy McNair is the author of Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, published in 2007 by the University of Hawaii Press. She is Associate Professor of Chinese Art at the University of Kansas, where she teaches and researches early and medieval Chinese art.