The Eight Hosts of Deva, Naga, and Yakshi

天龍八部羅叉女衆

1454

China, Ming dynasty

(1368–1644)

hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Painting: 140.2 x 78.8 cm (55 3/16 x 31 in.); Overall with knobs: 226.5 x 120 cm (89 3/16 x 47 1/4 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1973.70.2

Location: not on view

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Did You Know?

The Naga is on the lower right dressed as a king with gold dragons on his blue robe.

Description

The grandest of the Buddhist mortuary rites is the Water-Land (shuilu) ritual. This esoteric ceremony is conducted for the salvation of “all souls of the dead on land and sea.” The ostentatious ritual was performed for imperial ancestors and high officials from the Song (960–1279) to the Ming dynasties and drew large crowds. On the second day of the weeklong ceremony, paintings are hung in the inner altar.

This scroll represents the Eight Hosts of Celestial Nagas and Yakshis as described in the Lotus Sutra. Together with CMA 1973.70.1, it belongs to a set of 36 Water-Land ritual paintings that are the finest works of their types known from the Ming period. With their bright, opaque color and fine-line gilt decoration intact and unfaded, both paintings share a remarkable state of preservation.