Second Luohan at the MET, New York

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Buddhist legend tells of groups of 16, 18, or 500 luohans who were chosen by Buddha to wait for the coming of Maitreya, the Future Buddha. This promise of salvation had a huge appeal to Chinese Buddhists at the end of the ninth century because they had just gone through a period of great persecution and a cult grew up around the luohans as guardians during that time. The Museum has two statues from a group of seated luohans said to have been found in a mountain cave near Yizhou, now known as Yixian, in Hebei Province, which date back to this uncertain period. The colorful glaze covering the figures shows strong similarities to the well-known sancai tradition found in earlier Tang-dynasty funerary figures. The high quality of the designs and the use of advanced techniques such as reinforcing rods have led scholars to speculate that this example and others from the set were made at one of the imperial kilns, where large firing chambers and highly skilled craftsmen were available. This object is part of "Scan The World". Scan the World is a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory, which aims to create a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures, artworks and landmarks from around the world for the public to access free. Scan the World is an open source community effort, if you have interesting items nearby and would like to contribute, email stw@myminifactory.com to find out how you can help.