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Kshitigarbha (Chijang)

The popularity of the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, or Chijang, in Koryo-dynasty (918–1392) Pure Land Buddhism is demonstrated by the frequent depiction of the deity in devotional painting.  Here he is seen alone, with his attributes: a mendicantís staff and a wish-fulfilling cintamani. The iconography of the bodhisattva in this painting matches tenth-century depictions of Kshitigarbha from the Chinese cave-temple of Dunhuang, but the highly stylized drapery and the flat, abstracted quality of the painting suggest a late fourteenth-century date.

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