Medieval Buddhist of the Day

Back of N. Wei stele of Luo Daoming, Henan Prov. Mus. Donor image appears to depict donors in a real space (like a temple?), venerating a statue of the Buddha, rather than the Buddha himself. Note the pedestal and smaller than life size scale of the Buddha here – more than anything else, the way this violates the usual rules of hierarchical scale is what really makes it seem like a representation of a sculpture being venerated. Seems unusual for a donor scene to be so mundane.

Other examples usually insert tiny donors into the presence of the Buddha (typically much larger than the donors), bodhisattvas, apsaras etc. Can’t think of another case in which donors are depicted venerating a man-made image. Shades of Ding Lan and his wooden mother.