Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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地獄變

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: depiction of hell

Senses:

  • A pictorial representation of existence of living beings in hell, more fully written as 地獄變相. Also 地獄繪 and 地獄圖. The logograph 變 in this case implies manifestation, appearance 變現. The point of such paintings is to show how denizens of hell undergo interminable and unintermitting suffering. These are included with paintings of heavens, as well as the experience of the remainder of the ten realms 十界 and six destinies 六道. The earliest pictures of this sort are found in the Indian stone caves at Ajanta, and the practice was subsequently repeated in China, Korea, and Japan. Reference works on the Buddhist art traditions of each of these three East Asian countries provide further detail. For Japan, see the Iwanami dictionary, and for China, see the Fo Guang Dictionary. [Charles Muller; source(s): FGD, Nakamura]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 731

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 563c

    Fo Guang Dictionary 2313

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)3580b

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1217-2

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2008-04-20

    Updated: 2010-07-13