Abstract
Maitreya is one of the most popular of Buddhist images. Found in Mahayana, Theravada and Tibetan contexts, Maitreya appears both as a bodhisattva and as a Buddha. In East Asia, Maitreya is also depicted as the laughing Buddha with a big belly. All traditions view Maitreya as the Buddha of the future who will appear at the beginning of a new age. This future focus is the core trait that helps explain Maitreya’s continuing popularity. This chapter focuses on mega-statue images of Maitreya. Mega-statues are monumental objects that by their presence create “poles of immensity” clearly felt by those who view them. Mega-structures of all types alter the visitor’s quotidian sense of scale. The multi-disciplinary study of mega-statues allows us to see how religious images function, and how their functionality shifts. Using a four-fold typology, this chapter looks at Maitreya’s religious significance as well as aspects of patronage and commodification. The images surveyed are all in Asia, where most Maitreya images have been built and continue to be built. The chapter argues that Maitreya mega-statues are concentrations of symbolic capital. This capital comes in the form of hope, that most fragile of emotions.
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Notes
- 1.
Amulets are a prominent feature of Thai Buddhism. For a summary, see Pattana Kittiarsa, Mediums, Monks, and Amulets: Thai Popular Buddhism Today (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2012). Amulets have been found in Buddhist relic sites dating back to medieval China. For a survey of recent findings in China, see Paul Copp, “Altar, Amulet, Icon Transformations in Dhāraṇī Amulet Culture, 740–980,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 17, Studies in Chinese Art History/ Études sur l’histoire de l’art chinois (2008), 239–264.
- 2.
Hiroshi Kumamoto, “The Maitreya-samiti and Khotanese,” last modified 2009, https://www.academia.edu/2911477/The_Maitreya-samiti_and_Khotanese.
- 3.
Kim Inchang argues that certain early versions from Mathura are best seen as combined Buddha and bodhisattva images. See Kim Inchang, The Future Buddha Maitreya: An Iconological Study (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 1997), 34–50.
- 4.
Lee, Yu-min, “The Maitreya Cult and its Art in Early China.” Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1983, 112–38.
- 5.
Janet Eastman, “Buddha Statues have Meaning from Head to Toe,” Los Angeles Times, last modified February 2, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/style/la-hm-buddhaside12-2008jun12-story.html.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
David Morgan, Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998).
- 8.
Manon Regimbald, “The Call of Excessiveness. On the Works of Jérôme Fortin and Guy Laramée,” in Espace 101 (Fall, 2012), last modified November 8, 2019, https://espaceartactuel.com/en/call-of-excessiveness/.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Louis Kahn, “Monumentality,” in Louis Kahn: Essential Texts, ed. Robert Twombly (New York and London: W.W. Norton, 2003), 21–31.
- 13.
James F. Osborne, “Monuments and Monumentality,” in Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology, ed. James F. Osborne (Albany, NY: SUNY Press 2014), 1–19.
- 14.
V. Gordon Childe, “Thee Urban Revolution,” Town Planning Review 2, no. 1 (Apr., 1950): 3–17.
- 15.
Bruce G. Trigger, “Monumental Architecture: A Thermodynamic Explanation of Symbolic Behavior,” World Archaeology 22, no. 2 (1990): 122–124.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
For an example of the cumulative accretion of meaning in monuments, from a contrasting cultural setting, see Cynthia Culver Prescott, Pioneer Mother Monuments: Constructing Cultural Memory (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019).
- 18.
Economic factors were influential in erection of necropolises in second-century BC Rome, for instance. See Jane De Rose Evans, ed., A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republic (Chichester UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).
- 19.
For an example of the monument reflecting the will of the people, see David Bindman, “King of the New Republic: Houdon’s Equestrian Monument to George Washington,” in Charlotte Chastel-Rousseau, ed., Reading the Royal Monument in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Surrey, UK and Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2011), 119.
- 20.
Henri Lefebvre, H. “From the Social Pact to the Contract of Citizenship,” in Henri Lefebvre: Key Writings, ed. S. Elden, E. Lebas & E. Kofman (New York: Continuum, 2003 [1990]), 238–254.
- 21.
Osborne, “Monuments and Monumentality,” 13.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Trigger, Bruce G. “Monumental Architecture: A Thermodynamic Explanation of Symbolic Behavior,” World Archaeology 22, no. 2 (1990): 124.
- 24.
Details of patronage are often revealed in epigraphs. See Steven L. Tuck, “Epigraphy and Patronage,” in The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture, ed. Elise A. Friedland, Melanie Grunow Sobocinski, and Elaine K. Gazda, published online 2015, DOI 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199921829.013.0027.
- 25.
Krzysztof uses a similar concept, the idea of the “force field” as first formulated by Kurt Lewin in 1948, to explain the effect of a piece of public art. See Krzysztof Krzysztof, “Object of Art as A Religious Symbol in the Public Space: A Study on Public Sculptures in the Group Dynamics Model,” in Religion, Spirituality, Mental Health. Current Approaches in the Psychology of Religion (NP: Polish Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2018), 125–141.
- 26.
Pierre Bourdieu saw habitus as “the physical embodiment of cultural capital, … the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions that we possess due to our life experiences.” Habitus not only helps us navigate social realty, but it also holds social reality together. See “Habitus,” in Social Theory Rewired, last modified November 8, 2019, http://routledgesoc.com/category/profile-tags/habitus.
- 27.
One of the many sources on the subject of global capitalism in 2000 predicted, astutely, that the competition between capitalism and communism would be replaced by one between different variants of capitalism. See Robert Gilpin, with Jean Millis Gilpin, The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).
- 28.
Ashworth sees heritage as simply another commodity, one “purposefully created to satisfy contemporary consumption.” See G. Ashworth, “From History to Heritage: From Heritage to Identity: In Search of Concepts and Models,” in Building a New Heritage: Tourism, Culture and Identity in the New Europe, ed. G. J. Ashworth & P. J. Larkham (London: Routledge, 1994), 13–30. And as Bui and Lee clarify in regard to commodification of a historical structure in Vietnam, commodification is the process by which an object becomes “heritage.” See Huong T. Bui and Timothy J. Lee, “Commodification and Politicization of Heritage: Implications for Heritage Tourism at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Hanoi (Vietnam),” ASEAS—Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies 8, no. 2 (2015): 187–202.
- 29.
Alan Sponberg, “Introduction,” in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, ed. Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 1.
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
Padmanabh S. Jaini, “Stages in the Bodhisattva Career of the Tathāgata Maitreya,” in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, ed. Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 56–57.
- 32.
Sponberg, “Introduction,” 3.
- 33.
Joseph Kitagawa “The Many Faces of Maitreya,” in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, ed. Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 13.
- 34.
Rongxi Li, The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (Berkeley: Numata Center, 1996), 153.
- 35.
Jan Nattier, “The Meanings of the Maitreya Myth: A Typological Analysis,” in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, ed. Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 30.
- 36.
Hong Hai Dihn, “Maitreyan Images in Asian Buddhist Fine Arts,” Harvard-Yenching Institute Working Paper Series, last Modified 23 October 2009, https://harvard-yenching.org/sites/Harvardyenching.org/files/featurefiles/MAITREYA%20image%20IN%20ASIAN%20BUDDHIST%20FINE%20ARTS_Dinh%20Hong%20Hai.pdf.
- 37.
“Information About: Maitreya Buddha,” in Handmade Handicraft, last modified July 6, 2019, http://www.handmadeexpo.com/client/index.php?action=showiconographySingle&icon_id=26.
- 38.
The Digha Nikaya, in the “Discourse of the Marks” (Pali: Lakkhaṇa Sutta) (DN 30), “Stages in the Bodhisattva Career of the Tathāgata Maitreya,” enumerates and explains the 32 characteristics. These are also enumerated in the Brahmāyu Sutta of the Majhima Nikāya (MN 91). See Sarah Shaw, Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 114.
- 39.
Kathy Cheng-Mei Ku, “The Buddharāja Image of Emperor Wu of Liang,” in Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China, ed. Alan K. L. Chan, Yuet-Keung Lo (Albany, State University of New York Press, 2010), 279.
- 40.
In Mahayana temples, one often sees Maitreya holding a kundika pot filled with nectar (amrita), similar to the pot normally held by Avalokitesvara. This indicates a degree of confusion between attributes of the two figures.
- 41.
For a detailed description of the bodhisattva path, see Jaini, “Stages in the Bodhisattva Career,” 55–56.
- 42.
Kitagawa, “The Many Faces of Maitreya,” 10.
- 43.
Jaini, “Stages in the Bodhisattva Career of the Tathāgata Maitreya,” 51–73.
- 44.
Ibid., 56.
- 45.
Ibid., 57.
- 46.
Ibid., 62.
- 47.
The variations in the state of tension are explored by Nattier, “The Meaning of the Maitreya Myth: A Typological Analysis,” 23–47.
- 48.
Jaini, “Stages in the Bodhisattva Career of the Tathāgata Maitreya,” 61–64.
- 49.
Ibid., 63.
- 50.
In the introduction section and numbers 14, 15, 17, and 26. Jaini, “Stages in the Bodhisattva Career of the Tathāgata Maitreya,” 64.
- 51.
Ibid., 69.
- 52.
Ibid., 64 and 71.
- 53.
Ibid., 71.
- 54.
“Antarakalpa, aka: Antara-kalpa; 2 Definition(s),” in Wisdom Library, last modified November 8, 2019, https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/antarakalpa.
- 55.
“Mahakalpa.”
- 56.
Jaini, “Stages in the Bodhisattva Career of the Tathāgata Maitreya,” 73.
- 57.
The cakravartin will set in motion the first wheel, the Wheel of Command by Law. Once the Buddha Maitreya arrives, he will set in motion the second wheel, the Wheel of the Sacred Law, thus inaugurating a civilisation supported by the two laws. Ibid., 73–74.
- 58.
Ibid., 73.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Nattier, “The Meanings of the Maitreya Myth: A Typological Analysis,” 30.
- 61.
Ibid., 31.
- 62.
Ibid., 34.
- 63.
Alan Sponberg, “Maitreya in China, Korea and Vietnam: Introduction,” in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, edited by Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press), 1988, 91.
- 64.
Nattier, “The Meanings of the Maitreya Myth: A Typological Analysis,” 31.
- 65.
Ibid.
- 66.
Ma Xisha, “The Syncretism of Maitreyan Belief and Manichaeism,” in Xisha Ma and Huiying Meng, Popular Religion and Shamanism (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011), 35.
- 67.
Nattier, “The Meanings of the Maitreya Myth: A Typological Analysis,” 23–47.
- 68.
For a complete narrative of the Budai story, see Puji 普濟, Wudeng huiyuan 五燈會元 [wudeng huiyuan] (Beijing: Zhonghua press 1984), 121–123.
- 69.
Yukio Lippit explains how Budai was incorporated into the Chan pantheon during the Song: “Budai and the other ‘wandering saints’ of the Chan/Zen figural pantheon were local cult figures whose charisma was appropriated by Chan and assimilated in its ongoing institutional expansion.” See Yukio Lippit, “The Development of the Zen Figural Pantheon,” in Japan Society, last modified November 8, 2019, https://www.japansociety.org/development_zen_figural_pantheon.
- 70.
- 71.
There are numerous other sources of the Budai-Maitreya figure. Bu Dai is sometimes conflated with another figure from Buddhist texts, the arhat Angida. Angida was originally a snake-catcher who would catch and defang snakes before releasing them. Like Budai, Angida is generally smiling and plump. And in Japan as Hotei Maitreya became one of the Seven Lucky Gods 七福神 shikifukujin of Tokugawa-era (1600–1886) folklore. See Reiko Chiba, The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1968).
- 72.
It is remarkable that Maitreya was consistently seen as the Buddha of the future throughout different periods of Chinese history, starting in the Sui and extending through the Qing. This occurred despite his image changing drastically, from the Tang-era aristocratic garments to the corpulent Budai. Clearly what attracted believers was Maitreya’s identity as the future of the future. This identity was the source of Maitreya’s association with revolution. See Daniel L. Overmyer, “Maitreya in Chinese Popular Religion,” in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, ed. Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 114.
- 73.
Shri Bhagavatananda Guru, A Brief History of the Immortals of Non-Hindu Civilizations (Chennai: Notion Press, 2015), 80.
- 74.
William Honey said that the most popular Buddhist figure in China was Kuan Yin (Guanyin 觀音). See William Bowyer Honey, the Ceramic Art of China and Other Countries of the Far East (New York: Beechhurst Press, 1954), 210.
- 75.
Offering patronage was also a means of gaining social status in such cultures as medieval Italy. See Sally Hickson, “Social Change and Continuity in Renaissance Europe Patronage of the Arts,” in Oxford Bibliographies, last modified September 27, 2017, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195399301-0358.
- 76.
Regina F. Bendix Notes that “the need to find patrons or sponsors has always been present.” See Regina F. Bendix, “Patronage and Preservation: Heritage Paradigms and Their Impact on Supporting ‘Good Culture,’” in Between Imagined Communities of Practice: Participation, Territory and the Making of Heritage [online] (Göttingen: Göttingen University Press, 2015), last modified November 10, 2019. http://books.openedition.org/gup/231.
- 77.
Andrew Chittick, Patronage and Community in Medieval China: The Xiangyang Garrison, 400–600 CE (Albany: SUNY Press), 2010, 7–10.
- 78.
S. N. Eisenstadt and L. Roniger, Patrons, Clients and Friends: Interpersonal Relations and the Structure of Trust in Society (Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 184–185.
- 79.
Joy Lidu Yi, Yungang: Art, History, Archaeology, Liturgy, first edition (London & New York: Routledge, 2018), 16–18.
- 80.
Ibid.
- 81.
“Curious Tales of the Building of Leshan Great Buddha,” 樂山大佛建造傳奇:海通禪師自剜雙目啟建, Takungpao, last modified July 22, 2015, http://bodhi.takungpao.com.hk/ptls/wenhua/2015-07/3072150.htm.
- 82.
Personal communication, 2018.
- 83.
“Beopjusa Temple,” in Dale’s Korean Temple Adventures, last modified September 1, 2011, http://koreantemples.com/?p=187.
- 84.
“Wat Intharawihan,” in Renown Travel, last modified November 8, 2019, https://www.renown-travel.com/temples/wat-intharawihan.html.
- 85.
Aphilak Kasempholkoon and Siraporn Nathalang, “Convention and Invention in the Phra Sri An (Maitreya) Myth in Thai Society,” Rain Thai: International Journal of Thai Studies 2 (2009): 28–43.
- 86.
Craig Lewis, “First Phase of Mongolia’s Grand Maitreya Project to be Completed this Summer,” in Buddhistdoor Global, last modified April 12, 2017, https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/first-phase-of-mongolias-grand-maitreya-project-to-be-completed-this-summer.
- 87.
Ibid.
- 88.
Kitagawa, “The Many Faces of Maitreya,” 10.
- 89.
Ibid., 8.
- 90.
Taliban leader Omar stated that the Bamiyan statues “were and are sanctuary for unbelievers. These unbelievers continue to worship and to venerate these statues and pictures.” See Pierre Centlivres, “The Controversy over the Buddhas of Bamiyan,” South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal [Online], 2 (Dec., 2008), last modified April 30, 2019. DOI: 10.4000/samaj.992.
- 91.
Besides the images at Diskit mentioned above, there are large images at Bago, Leh, Likir, and Mulbekh. See Sophie and Max Lovell-Hoare, Kashmir: the Bradt Travel Guide (Buckinghamshire, UK: Bradt Travel Guides, 2014), 100, 151, 149.
- 92.
Rob Linrothe, “Origins of the Kashmiri Style in the Western Himalayas: Sculpture of the 7th–11th Centuries,” in Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), ed. Carmen Meinert, last modified October 5, 2015. 147–188. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/978900430743. Linrothe, Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), 162.
- 93.
Ibid., 162.
- 94.
Ibid., 171.
- 95.
Ibid.
- 96.
P. S. Jina, Ladakh Himalaya: Past and Present. Thiksey Monastery: Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd., 2006, 319–347.
- 97.
According to UNESCO website, “The Potala Palace…symbolises Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet.” Since the Thikse Monastery is a replica of Potala, located outside China, it can be read symbolising the extent of Tibetan culture beyond the political borders of Tibet. See “Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa,” in UNESCO World Heritage List, last modified November 8, 2019, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/707/.
- 98.
“Diskit Monastery,” last modified February 19, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diskit_Monastery.
- 99.
Hong Hai Dihn, “Maitreyan Images in Asian Buddhist Fine Arts,” 23–24.
- 100.
In Japan in particular, Maitreya was an object of intense devotion. See Taigen Dan Leighton, Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression (Boston: Wisdom Publication, 2012), 262.
- 101.
Over 24 million visitors in 2017. “2.55 million People visit Sichuan’s Leshan over Chinese New Year 255万人春节游四川乐山 大佛、峨眉山景区接待游客数均创新高,” in 雪花新闻 [snowflakes News], last modified February 22, 2018. https://www.xuehua.us/2018/02/22/255万人春节游四川乐山-大佛、峨眉山景区接待游客/.
- 102.
Maitreya took on attributes of indigenous traditions in every East Asian country. See Sponberg, “Maitreya in China, Korea and Vietnam: Introduction,” 92.
- 103.
Robert Buswell, “Korean Buddhism in East Asian Context,” Korean Arts Society Journal 3 (2011): 54–61.
- 104.
Shamanist rocks (ipsok 立石), phallic stones, and spirit poles can still be found in Korea.
- 105.
Overmyer, “Maitreya in Chinese Popular Religion,” 111–112.
- 106.
Buswell, “Korean Buddhism in East Asian Context,” 54–61.
- 107.
“Maitreya: The Future Buddha,” in Buddhist Studies, last modified 2008, http://www.buddhanet.net/elearning/history/maitreya2.htm.
- 108.
This combination is known as the Three Period Buddhas because it includes the Buddhas of the past, the current age and the future. Jung-Sook Kim, “The Iconic Development of the Buddhist Triad Format,” in UNESCO Silk Roads, last modified September 21–30, 1995, https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/knowledge-bank/religion-and-spirituality/iconographic-origin-and-development-buddhist-triad-format.
- 109.
Kitagawa explains that Maitreya was worshipped because he ruled Tusita Heaven, as well as being the Buddha of the future. This later role was important because he exemplified perfection of virtue. See Kitagawa, “The Many Faces of Maitreya,” 13.
- 110.
“A bodhisattva,” says Anne Klein, “is someone whose purpose is to benefit others in every possible way.” See Taigen Dan Leighton, “Anne Klein, Ejo Mcmullen and Venerable Pannavati,” In Lion’s Roar, last modified June 1, 2018, https://www.lionsroar.com/author/venerable-pannavati/.
- 111.
Several modern non-Buddhist groups now claim Maitreya as a saviour figure, including Share International, Ascended Master Teachings and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. See “Maitreya,” in Buddha World, last modified November 8, 2019, http://www.tamqui.com/buddhaworld/Maitreya.
- 112.
“Get To Know Us 認識我們,” in Maitreya Great Tao, last modified 2019, https://maitreya.org.tw.
- 113.
The most extreme examples of massive opulence are found in the main temples of the four exemplars of humanistic Buddhism: Tzu Chi 慈濟, Foguang Shan 佛光山, Dharma Drum 法鼓山 and Chung Tai Shan 中台山. Colloquially known as the (new) “four Great Mountains” 四大名山 (sida mingshan), these groups have all erected massive, highly visible examples of excess.
- 114.
For a recent discussion of tourism and Buddhism, see Budi Hermawan Ubud Salim, Fatchur Rohman, Mintarti Rahayu, “Sustainable Religious Tourism: Is the Buddhist Approach Able to Make It Happen?,” in Buddhist Approach To Responsible Consumption And Sustainable Development, ed. Thich Nhat Tu and Ven. Thich Duc Thien (Hanoi: Hong Duc Publishing, 2019), 404–415.
- 115.
For a discussion of development issues surrounding one specific site, see Yoshiko Ashiwa and David L. Wank, “The Politics of a Reviving Buddhist Temple: State, Association, and Religion in Southeast China,” Journal of Asian Studies 65, no. 2 (May, 2006): 337–359.
- 116.
Sheng-yen 聖嚴, A Lotus Flower at Every Step 步步蓮華 (bubu lianhua) (Taipei: Dharma Drum Culture, 2015), 222.
- 117.
Daniel Levi, and Sara Kocher, “Understanding Tourism at Heritage Religious Sites,” Focus, 6, no. 1 (Jun., 2009): 17–21.
- 118.
Justin Thomas McDaniel, Architects of Buddhist Leisure (Honolulu: University of Hawai-I Press, 2017), 11–17.
- 119.
Ibid.
- 120.
The Statue of Unity, the world’s highest statue, completed in 2018, in Gujarat, India, is reported to have cost 2500 crore (US$350 million). See Chayan Kundu and Nikhil Dawar, “Fact Check: Who funded the Tallest Statue of the World?,” in India Today, last modified January 31, 2019, https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-statue-of-unity-funding-1384904-2018-11-09.
- 121.
Linh Pham, “Asia’s largest Buddha Maitreya statue on Cam Mountain,” in Vietnamnet, last modified May 31, 2013, https://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/art-entertainment/75469/asia-s-largest-buddha-maitreya-statue-on-cammountain.html.
- 122.
Both Hoa Hao Buddhism (Đạo Hòa Hảo) and its predecessor, Buu Son Ky Huong, originated in the area. See Ho Tai, Hue-Tam, “Perfect World and Perfect Time: Maitreya in Vietnam,” in Maitreya, the Future Buddha, ed. Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (Cambridge, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 154–170.
- 123.
Katie Kalmusky, “Vĩnh Tràng Pagoda: Vietnam’s Gorgeous Buddhist Gardens,” in Culturetrip, last modified August 10, 2018, https://theculturetrip.com/authors/kathryn-kalmusky/.
- 124.
“Yuhua Dongtian Mount Villa” 玉华洞天休闲山庄, 鸥鸟 Baidu, last modified November 8, 2019, https://baike.baidu.com/item/玉华洞天休闲山庄.
- 125.
“Advance Booking for Yuhua Dongtian Mount Villa” 将乐玉华洞天休闲山庄住宿预订_ 门票预订_团购价格_ 特色菜_优惠套票, last modified November 8, 2019, http://m.cyw.com/shop/146278638633.
- 126.
Sergey Lepekhov, “Historical and Cultural Role of Indian Mitra and Maitreya Cults in the Unite Process of Eurasia,” in Eurasia and India: Regional Perspectives, ed. K. Warikoo (Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2018).
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Irons, E.A. (2021). Maitreya’s Boundless Gaze: The Religious Implications of Maitreya Mega-Statues. In: Kim, D.W. (eds) Sacred Sites and Sacred Stories Across Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56522-0_10
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