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Kizil Cave 175: Five Realms of Existence

Kizil Cave 175: Five Realms of Existence

CHINA, Xinjiang, Aksu

This painting is located on the inner wall of the right corridor. In the painting, the Buddha wears a monastic robe which bares the right shoulder. He is seated with legs crossed and forms the vitarka (teaching) mudra. A nimbus and an aureole, surrounded by the Five Realms of Existence, are depicted behind the Buddha. The section of the outer circle closest to the Buddha is the heavenly being realm. The next circles depict the human realm, the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the hell realm. Within each realm is a small standing Buddha. Vividly depicted, this is the only painting of the Five Realms of Existence within the Kizil Caves.

For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Caves R-L, page 571.

Cite this article:

Hsingyun, et al. "Kizil Cave 175: Five Realms of Existence." Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Caves R-L, vol. 6, 2016, pp. 571.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Peter Johnson, Mankuang, Susan Huntington, Gary Edson, and Robert Neather. 2016. "Kizil Cave 175: Five Realms of Existence" In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Caves R-L, 6:571.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Johnson, P., Mankuang, Huntington, S., Edson, G., & Neather, R.. (2016). Kizil Cave 175: Five Realms of Existence. In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Caves R-L (Vol. 6, pp. 571).
@misc{Hsingyun2016,
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Johnson, Peter and Mankuang and Huntington, Susan and Edson, Gary and Neather, Robert,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Caves R-L},
pages = 571,
title = {{Kizil Cave 175: Five Realms of Existence}},
volume = 6,
year = {2016}}


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