Sui and Tang Bodhisattvas

The Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) period sculptures are the aesthetic peak of Maijishan's long artistic history. Where the Northern Wei figures have a stylised, other-worldly quality, the Sui and Tang bodhisattvas are warmer and more naturalistic — the human form given spiritual weight without being distorted by it. The clay medium gave sculptors a freedom of expression that stone could not provide, and this freedom is most evident in the figures from these two dynasties.

Several of the mid-height caves contain complete groupings from the Tang period: a central Buddha flanked by bodhisattvas and attendants in various states of action and repose. The colour in some of these groupings — protected from weathering by the cave overhangs — has survived with unusual freshness. The overall effect is very different from the more famous grottoes at Mogao (Dunhuang), where the emphasis is on painted murals rather than sculpture.

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A Tang-dynasty bodhisattva at Maijishan can stop you cold in a way that the grander sculptures at Yungang or Longmen rarely do. The clay medium — softer and more responsive to the sculptor's hand than stone — allowed a delicacy of expression and gesture that the rock-cutting tradition could not easily achieve. The slight tilt of a head, the curve of a hand, the weight of drapery across a shoulder: these are figures that feel inhabited rather than carved.