Landscape with the Parable of the Illusory City from the Lotus Sutra

James C. Lo Workshop

1958-63

Ink and color on paper

Seattle Art Museum

This artwork is a 1958-63 ink and color on paper painting by the James C. Lo Workshop, illustrating a passage from the Lotus Sutra where the Buddha conjures a city for travelers. Photographers James and Lucy Lo were some of the first 20th-century Chinese visitors to the ancient oasis city of Dunhuang in far northwest China. During their arduous trip, they found Tang dynasty Buddhist sutra manuscript fragments in the desert; examples of what they collected are displayed here. The couple later founded an artist workshop in Taipei. In a remarkable commitment to preserve knowledge of Dunhuang’s Buddhist cave temples, they painted renditions of the splendid murals using their archive of photographs. This landscape illustrates a passage from the Lotus Sutra in which the Buddha conjures a city for the respite of ex