engraving

Engraving of John Thomson’s Photograph of Gushan’s Monks

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After Fuzhou opened to foreign trade in 1842, missionaries, merchants, and travelers began climbing the stone stairway to Gushan. The dramatic setting with temple roofs rising from forested slopes above the Min River plain made it irresistible to photographers and travel writers.

Set on the peaks of Gushan, Yongquan Monastery was a large complex with many monks and thus drew considerable attention from foreigners. The temple was relatively close to the city center of Fuzhou, making excursions into the mountains feasible for many.

The woodcut engraving depicting the monks of Gushan appeared in an 1884 edition of L’Univers illustré, an illustrated weekly French newspaper. The accompanying short article notes the Buddhist monastery on Gushan “ranks among the most renowned” in Fuzhou.

Scottish photographer John Thomson took many photos of Fuzhou and the Min River in the 1870s, including the monks of Yongquan Monastery. This engraving clearly draws upon a photograph first published by Thomson in his Foochow and the River Min (1873).

The artist R. Caton Woodville transformed Thomson’s formal sitting portrait into a more animated scene with monks walking by the temple gate; the Heavenly King statue was added for dramatic effect. To compare the engraving with Thomson’s photo, see here: https://tinyurl.com/yeuepkht.

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William Hurd’s Treading on the Crucifix Engraving

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In the 17th century, to uncover suspected Christians, Japanese authorities in Nagasaki forced commoners to step on an image of Jesus or Mary. As knowledge of this practice spread to Europe, depictions of “treading on the crucifix,” appeared in illustrated works by the 18th century.

To ferret out “hidden Christians,” local villagers were forced to commit blasphemy by stepping on icons sacred to Christianity; such objects were called fumi-e 踏絵, or “images for stomping.” If anyone refused, authorities turned to torture to procure apostasy, or they were killed.

Stories of this practice circulated in popular European literature, such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and Voltaire’s Candide (1759). For European Christians, such actions were perceived as a vile act of paganism, reflected in this engraving by a buddha with devil horns.

This image of a horned buddha is placed at the crown of the page as an ornamental embellishment. William Hurd’s New Universal History (1780) copied the main engraving from an older work, but added this detail to help further contextualize the depicted activity as demonic.

Unexpectedly, Hurd blames, in part, the proselytizing activities of the Jesuits who still placed importance in Christian icons. Had they taught the “simple truth, without the use of images,” Hurd implies the Japanese may have embraced Christianity, turning away from idolatry altogether.

This use of fumi-e continued until 1858 when it was formally abandoned. To read a scientific analysis of historical paper-made fumi-e, see Montanari et al., “Kami Fumi-e: Japanese Paper Images to Be Trampled on—A Mystery Resolved” (2025), here: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/8/2/78.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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William Hurd’s “Idol Buddu” Engraving

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Writing in 1790, William Hurd noted the icons of Ceylon were “fantastic and monstrous,” while one, “formed like a giant,” was called “Buddu.” The accompanying engraving of the Buddha shows a curious bearded figure with a tall crown and sword held aloft in his right hand.

Hurd’s engraving was not original, it was copied from Bernard Picart’s widely circulated Ceremonies and Religious Customs published between 1723–1743. The sword, unexpected for a buddha’s iconography, is not addressed in Picart’s text, moreover, we now know the image has a non-Buddhist origin.

Key elements of the iconography are seen in an engraving from documents prepared by Joris van Spilbergen, member of the first Dutch embassy to Ceylon in 1602. According to Van Spilbergen, the image was part of King Vimaladharmasūriya’s “coat of arms,” and thus depicted the Ceylonese royalty.

The king’s image with crown and sword were reprinted in Theodor de Bry’s Petit Voyages in 1605, but by the following century, possibly under the editorial hand of Picart, the image was treated as the Buddha. Supplicants with offerings were added to the scene to exemplify a religious setting.

Despite Hurd’s caption citing the “ceremonies of adoration paid to the idol Buddu,” the illustration reflects much of the confusion over Buddhism at the time. The original engraving made for Van Spilbergen, held by the Rijksmuseum, can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/msxm74bu.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Arnoldus Montanus’ Icon with Thirty Arms Engraving

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Following a pair of successful illustrated works on China, publisher Jacob van Meurs secured the rights to issue an illustrated book on Japan in 1669. The engravings, such as we see with the curious Buddhist icon here, were criticized for departing “a long way from the truth.”

Compiled by Arnoldus Montanus, a Protestant Minister who never left Holland, the engravings in Atlas Japannensis draw from both textual descriptions and an older European visual language of Asian idolatry. The work includes 23 large plates and 71 smaller vignettes set within the text.

As for the icon here, the English translation of 1670 reads, “This Image hath thirty Arms, and as many Hands, in each two Arrows, a Face representing a handsome Youth, on his Breast seven humane Faces, with a Crown of Gold, richly inchas’d with Peals, Diamonds, and all sorts of Precious Gems.”

While multi-armed and multi-headed figures are not uncommon in Buddhism, the particular configuration here appears rather fanciful. Nevertheless, we are informed the illustration here represents the Bodhisattva Kannon, further curiously identified in the text as the son of Amida Buddha.

The markings on the pedestal are meant to signify non-alphabetic East Asian writing, but none can be resolved into legible characters.

Kannon’s temple is said to be located on a Buddhist mountain just east of Kyoto, most likely pointing to Mt. Hiei. The fires indicate part of Mt. Hiei’s history, as described by Montanus, when Oda Nobunaga razed Buddhist temples in the region in 1571.

Several of Montanus’ engravings were copied into later works on Japan, helping shape a visual lexicon for Buddhism into the 19th cent. The 1669 Dutch edition of Atlas Japannensis has been digitized by the National Library of the Netherlands, viewable here: tinyurl.com/5n6kstfy.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Olfert Dapper’s “The Idoll Sechia” Engraving

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The Atlas Chinensis by Olfert Dapper (1636–1689) is among the most visually embellished European treatments of China from the late 17th century. Never traveling to Asia, Dapper used reports from the 2nd and 3rd Dutch embassies to China and consulted older Jesuit accounts.

The copperplate engravings were likely prepared in the workshop of publisher Jacob van Meurs who found reasonable success issuing illustrated books on Asia. The illustration here is from the 1674 German edition of Atlas Chinensis; it was originally published in Dutch in 1670.

In a section describing Buddhism, Dapper notes that images of the “Idoll Sechia” (Śākyamuni) are found in temples, “in the shape of a fair Youth; with a third Eye in his forehead.” Engravers had great liberty to interpret and add further details.

Some details, such as the European-style crown at the base of the altar, suggest fabricated visual embellishments intended to make the scene more familiar to European readers.

While other details that might appear odd, such as the flanking figures scratching their ears, are actually based on authentic Buddhist imagery of the arhats (C. luohan). Unpublished Jesuit sketches available to Dapper likely informed some of these details.

An English edition of Dapper’s work, published by John Ogilby in 1671 (and curiously misattributed to Arnoldus Montanus), can be viewed through Stanford University here: tinyurl.com/ycyw93eb.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Harper’s 1871 “Joss House” Print

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In 1871, Harper’s Weekly published a wood engraving depicting the interior of a San Francisco Chinese temple, a rare print subject before the 1906 earthquake. Clues suggest it shows the main hall of Eastern Glory Temple located off Jackson St. on St. Louis Alley.

Eastern Glory Temple was privately owned by physician Li Po Tai (1817–1893), an immigrant from Guangdong who opened a general store and apothecary across from Portsmouth Square. His temple was featured in California newspapers in February 1871, just before Harper’s illustration that March.

Despite being called a “Buddhist temple” in some popular accounts, there is no Buddhist icon displayed in the main shrine hall. The central icon is the Northern Emperor, a celestial deity popular among early Chinese immigrants from southern China.

Contemporary newspaper reports claim the icon to the far left was the “controller of fortunes” named “Choy Pah.”

The icon to the far right was a famous military general named “Tun Goa.” The next room over holds a shrine to Guanyin (not illustrated), the sole Buddhist figure, which newspapers describe as a “Cinderella” who is “treated cruelly by haughty women [and performs] act of charity.”

In addition to the Northern Emperor, the central altar displays the famous general Guandi and righteous official Hongsheng. To read more about Li Po Tai, see Tamara Venit Shelton’s Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace (2019).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Arnoldus Montanus’ Great Buddha of Hōkō-ji Engraving

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In 1649, while traveling from Nagasaki to Edo (modern Tokyo), the visiting Dutch Embassy made an obligatory stop in Kyoto where they saw the Great Buddha of Hōkō-ji. The Great Buddha stood nearly 60 feet tall and was completed in 1612, replacing an older destroyed icon.

The original Dutch report by Andries Frisius was eventually published by Arnoldus Montanus in 1669 as part of his Atlas Japannensis. Based in part on the report of Frisius, the printer, Jacob van Meurs, had a large copperplate engraving made to illustrate the embassy’s visit.

The temple icon was Vairocana Buddha which was described by Montanus as a “terrible Image… with his Legs across under him.” Furthermore, “the whole statue represents a Woman sitting in a Ring of Darting beams richly gilded.”

Van Meurs’ engravers seemingly took inspiration from the text, but also had to draw upon their own visual repertoire to fill in details. This includes the masonry columns in the back of the temple as well as playful cherub-like figures in the “Ring of Darting beams.”

“Two horrible Fiends, with Stiletto’s in their hands” – certainly the fearsome Niō – are described a guarding the temple entrance. The engraver places these grotesque figures inside the main temple hall.

Atlas Japannensis was first published in Dutch in 1669; an English version came the following year. The hand-colored print shown here came from the French edition of 1680. As noted by Isa van Eeghen, the English legend was burnished off of the plate and re-inscribed in French.

By the time of printing, the colossal Buddha of Hōkō-ji had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1662; a wooden image replaced it in 1667. The 1669 Dutch edition of Atlas Japannensis has been digitized by the National Library of the Netherlands, viewable here: tinyurl.com/5n6kstfy.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Alain Mallet’s Dalai Lama Engraving

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Earliest European depiction of the Dalai Lama? In 1683 Alain Mallet published his illustrated five-volume set entitled Description de l’univers. The second volume, devoted to Asia, contained an illustration of the Grand Lama, a “living and true God.”

Mallet copied an earlier illustration of Althanius Kircher from 1667 with minimal changes. The engraving shown here was hand colored (possibly after publication), giving the Dalai Lama a dark red robe.

While not named in the text, the original illustration was published during the lifetime of the famed Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso. Information about the Dalai Lama was gleaned from the reports of Jesuit missionary Johann Grueber who visited Lhasa in 1661.

The Fifth Dalai Lama died in 1682, a year before Mallet’s publication, but his passing was concealed for more than a decade. Mallet reports on the process of reincarnation, describing it as a “deception.”

To read Mallet’s text associated with this image, see the digitized scan provided by the University of Ottawa here: https://tinyurl.com/37895xc9

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Alain Mallet’s Porcelain Pagoda of Baoen Temple Engraving

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In 1683, the French military commander Alain Mallet published his illustrated five-volume set entitled Description de l’univers. While it received tepid reviews, Mallet’s encyclopedic approach drew together diverse information about East Asia that was still relatively new to European audiences.

Trained as an engineer and draughtsman, Mallet is sometimes claimed to have drawn the images for his books. While his cartography and celestial charts may have been original works, the images of Asia were copies of earlier published illustrations.

This illustration of the famed Porcelain Pagoda of Baoen Temple in Nanjing was a copy of Johan Nieuhof’s illustration more than a decade earlier. This included the irregular mountains in the back and the people added for scale.

It was publications like Description de l’univers, however, the kept the pagoda alive in the European imagination, making it a key visual element in chinoiserie.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Thomas Allom’s Sticks of Fate Engraving

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Having never traveled to China, Thomas Allom’s illustrations retain a touch of the fantastic common among his European pictorial predecessors. After the end of the Opium War in 1842 there was renewed interest in China and Allom’s book was among the first to serve this audience.

The text for China: In a Series of Views was composed by Rev. George Wright. He commonly portrayed the Chinese as inferior and infatuated with bizarre customs, reflecting a growing sentiment among Europeans after the Opium War.

A trained illustrator, Allom prepared watercolor paintings and had them engraved for his books. While some paintings were copies of earlier works by others, including those in the British military stationed in China, this illustration appears to be the creation of Allom.

Overall, Allom creates a dynamic image showing a commonplace Chinese temple practice of fortune telling. Some elements, however, appear out of place.

The New York Public Library has digitized Allom’s works on China with a layout of all his engraved illustrations viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/3b74hu7m.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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