Head of the disciple Ananda

550-577

This smooth-shaven young monk with compassionate expression most likely represents Ananda, Shakyamuni Buddha's young disciple. The head is almost life-size and would have belonged to an impressive, high-relief sculpture flanking an image of the Buddha in one of China's cave-temples. When Buddhist sculptures left China in the early twentieth century, their original site was often unrecorded. Therefore, scholars are still trying to determine the origin of some sculptures. Based on style, it seems likely that this head came from one of the seventh-century, Tang-dynasty caves at Longmen, a large cave-temple complex near Luoyang, Henan Province. Some scholars see a greater similarity to the sculpture at Xiangtangshan, the Northern Qi site located in present-day Handan Municipality, Hebei Province. Further research is needed.