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Taima Mandala
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This painting is a copy after an 8th-century woven mandala belonging to the temple Taimadera. The composition is based on a sacred text that describes the Buddha Shakyamuni’s explanation of Amida’s Pure Land to Queen Vaidehi, as well as his instructions to her on visual meditation upon the Pure Land. The Pure Land appears at the center of the painting. To the left is the story of Queen Vaidehi’s encounter with Shakyamuni, and to the right are the scenes she is given to visualize. The bottom illustrates the nine levels of birth that can be attained in the Pure Land.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineTaima Mandala (当麻曼荼羅図), early 1300s. Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333). Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk; painting: 135.6 x 140.3 cm (53 3/8 x 55 1/4 in.); mounted: 170.5 x 203.2 cm (67 1/8 x 80 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 1990.82
