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Summary Of The Paradise Of Maitreya

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The Paradise of Maitreya is a wall painting by famed painter and Buddhist monk Zhu Haogu and his pupil Zhang Boyuan. It is 502 cm in height and 1101 cm in length, and was created on the southwestern portion of the Xinghua monastery in 1298, during China’s Yuan dynasty. The painting is done through the dry fresco method on one of the clay walls of the monastery, with ink and rich colour pigments being used to create the image itself. The technique used to create this painting was appropriate likely due to the ease in which the surface of the wall could be prepared and covered with clay, and how the ink and colour medium was one that was already being used at the time. After being restored, it was shipped to Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum’s Bishop White Gallery, where it currently resides. Though the overall surface of the wall painting is smooth and flat due to the technique used and the clay on which the ink was applied, there are still faint lines and faded areas that are likely due to the passage of time and how the painting had to be taken apart while being transported.

The wall painting features Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, sitting surrounded on both sides by two monks -standing immediately to the left and right, slightly to the back-, the ruling king and queen -sitting and in elaborate headdresses and robes, further left and right-, the crown prince and princess -standing between their parents and Maitreya-, and many other disciples and bodhisattvas -doing

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