Photography Temple Guards at Xihuang Temple
Photography Temple Guards at Xihuang Temple
CC BY-SA 4.0
A black-and-white photograph showing the statues of two temple guards at the Lamaist Xihuang Temple (Xihuangsi 西黃寺) in Beijing. These are two of the four heavenly kings, protectors of the dharma and fighters against evil. On the left is Virūḍhaka (Zeng Zhang Tianwang 增長天王), whose weapon is a sword, and on the right is Dhṛtarāṣṭra (Chi Guo Tianwang 持國天王), whose weapon is the stringed instrument pipa 琵琶.
The photograph is the 231st of 449 photographs of Beijing and its surroundings in the album of Ivan Skušek Jr., purchased during his stay in Beijing (1914–1920). In the handwritten inventory of the album, the photograph is referred to as Tempelwächter im “Gelben Tempel”. (DZ, MV)
Place of manufacture: Beijing
Manufacturing technique: black-and-white photograph
Dimensions: length: 13.1 cm, width: 8.6 cm
No. of parts: 1
Current owner: Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Date of the last acquisition: 1963
Previous owners and periods of ownership: Ivan Skušek, Jr. and Tsuneko Kondō Kawase - Marija Skušek, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Object condition, handling and damage: blue discolouration of black colour
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