Publication details
Vanišova a Palátova fotografie Baržiho velkého Maitréji a její význam pro vizuální rekonstrukci chrámu Džokhang ve Lhase : Případová studie
| Title in English | Vaniš and Palát's photograph of Barzi's Great Maitreya and its significance for the visual reconstruction of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa : a case study |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Tichá pošta mezi Bohemií a Buddhou |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Buddha Maitreya; Barzi's Great Maitreya; Jokhang Temple; Lhasa; gilded copper statue; Josef Vaniš; Augustin Palát; Tibetan Buddhism; Iconography |
| Description | The paper discusses the gigantic statue of the future Buddha Maitreya, called Barji Champa, which was located in the main hall of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet. This roughly eight-metre-high gilded copper statue was destroyed by Maoist Red Guards in 1966 and today a replica, or rather an imitation of the original statue, stands in its place. Although it was the largest statue in Jokhang, not many photographs are known to show the original form before its demise. About a dozen of them have been published so far, with about a third coming from Czech or Czechoslovak authors. The first Czech photographer to photograph and publish the statue was Josef Vaniš in December 1954, and the last was Augustin Palát in September 1956, and it was their photographs that played a cardinal role in establishing that the statue had changed over time - that it had moved by hand. The paper will attempt to unravel this mystery of the change in hand gesture (mudra in Sanskrit) in the mid-1950s. |
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