Click to enlarge
Amitabha with Attending Bodhisattvas and Celestial Musicians
From the Mogao cave complex, Cave 251
Near Dunhuang, China
Northern Wei period (386-581 CE)
Ink and mineral pigments


The veneration of Amitabha represents a significant landmark in the history of Buddhism. It constitutes one of the simplest forms of Buddhist meditation, and for this reason became tremendously popular throughout Asia. The doctrinal basis for the worship of Amitabha, Buddha of the Sukahavati or "Pure Land," is in the Sukahavati-vyuha, a sutra first translated into Chinese in the year 147 CE, though the most famous translations are those by Kumarajiva (344-413) and Xuanzong (600-660 CE).

Amitabha worship made great strides in China during the fifth century, after gaining popularity in Central Asia in earlier centuries. It was particularly widespread among the uneducated, since it did not necessitate any profound knowledge of Buddhist doctrine. Instead, all that was required of practitioners was that they commit themselves to a very large number of repetitions of the name "Amitabha" while simultaneously invoking an inner vision of the Buddha seated in his Western Pure Land Paradise. Anyone who demonstrated his or her faith and total devotion to Amitabha would be granted rebirth in his Pure Land.

Painted images of Amitabha in his paradise provided practitioners with a model upon which to base their visualizations, and were based upon descriptions of the Western Pure Land found in the Sukahavati-vyuha and other sutras. Much like this mural from Cave 251, they usually depicted Amitabha lecturing before a lotus pond (souls of the faithful were reborn inside lotus blossoms), flanked by two attending Bodhisattvas, Avalokitesvara (who bears a miniature image of Amitabha in his headdress) and Mahasthamaprapta (whose headdress is often decorated with a small pagoda). Heavenly musicians and dancers fly above and around Amitabha, rejoicing in his goodness and compassion.