Page 446 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Painted stone standing Buddha
97 (38'A)
Northern Qi Dynasty, mid-sixth century CE
(c- 550 -557)
From Longxingsi, Qingzhou, Shandong Province
Qingzhou Municipal Museum, Shandong Province

Unearthed on 17 November 1987 at a site approxi-
mately 100 meters east of the Qingzhou Municipal
Museum, this limestone sculpture, carved in the
round, depicts a gently smiling Buddha with a slen-
der frame and delicate features standing on a lotus
pod. The Jiaqing Qingzhou Prefecture Gazeteer (1522 -
1566) identifies the find-site as the Northern Wei
period Nanyang Monastery, renamed the Longxing
Monastery during the Tang dynasty. 1
The figure's hair, sculpted in crisp curls resem-
bling rows of snail shells, culminates in a conical

445 | BUDDHIS T S C U L P T U R E FROM Q I N C Z H O U