We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands.

Art Sets.

Kind and blessed beings

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The four works grouped here are some of the best-loved in the Gallery’s Asian collection. Perhaps it is no coincidence that all four portray bodhisattvas, those kind and blessed beings who postpone their own enlightenment and remain on earth to help the rest of us on the journey to nirvana.

In the outer case sits an exquisite gilt bronze of Guanyin, the bodhisattva of mercy and compassion. In the centre stands the exceptional image of Padmapani, the Luminous Lord of Infinite Compassion. And nearby sits the bodhisattva Maitreya, feet resting on the ground to signify his readiness to arise and then descend to earth.

In later times and in yet another form, Maitreya became one of the most popular of Buddhist images as Budai, a fat jolly fellow revered for his detachment and commonly referred to as the ‘laughing Buddha’. This is the figure who beams out at us from Liu Xiaoxian’s large photographs, which are themselves made up of thousands of tiny photographs. Perhaps Liu Xiaoxian was thinking of the famous poem the laughing Buddha wrote on his deathbed:

Maitreya as the true Maitreya
Replicates himself in a thousand million ways,
Appearing at times to people of that time,
But they do not recognise him.