postcard

Pacific Curio Shop Niō Statue Postcard

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A pair of muscular, wrathful Niō, “Benevolent Kings,” often stand guard at the entrance to Japanese Buddhist temples. In the late 1950s, however, this Niō was stationed outside John Saxby’s Pacific Curio Shop on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

Saxby was a WWI veteran and a Merchant Marine who became a well-respected amateur conchologist. In addition to offering a world-class shell exhibit, Saxby imported Japanese curios, a thriving market post-WWII.

Strands of shells and postcards can also be seen for sale.

The shop’s “Temple Guardian” was apparently important enough to warrant its own postcard. The “Kodak Paper” stamp box dates this card to after 1950.

The icon’s closed mouth identifies this guardian as Ungyō; I am unsure of where this statue originated. A photo of Saxby inspecting another imported icon can be found at the San Francisco Public Library: https://digitalsf.org/islandora/object/islandora:137138

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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Pierre Dieulefils’ Tārā Postcard

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The École Française d’Extrême-Orient was founded at the turn of the 20th century in Hanoi in what was then French Indochina. Around 1905 Pierre Dieulefils appears to have taken photographs of the institution’s nascent collection of Buddhist statuary.

The date of 1905 is derived from the presumed publication date of Dieulefils “red series” postcards. Dieulefils’ studio was also in Hanoi and he worked closely with the French institution photographing Angkor Wat.

The red letterpress caption at the top of the card identifies the icon as the Goddess Tārā. I have been unable to determine who has possession of the statue today.

Dieulefils built a thriving postcard business upon the desires of French officers to send picture souvenirs home to France.

Since 1958 the old archaeological research institution of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient in Hanoi has operated as the Vietnam National Museum of History. The museum’s website can be found here: https://baotanglichsu.vn/vi

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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D.A. Ahuja’s Buddhist Priest Portrait Postcard

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At the turn of the twentieth century, photographer D. A. Ahuja was integral in creating a visual canon of British colonial Burma. His picture postcards were among the most reprinted images of the era, including this portrait of an unnamed “Burmese priest.”

The image was made by a lithographic-halftone hybrid process, whereby a black halftone screen was applied on top of a multi-color lithographic substrate. The “divided back” design suggests Ahuja printed this card around 1910.

Burmese pagodas and monks were common enough to warrant claiming they constituted their own visual genre of “Burmese religious life.” The colorist here inaccurately represented the monk’s robes, combining the two most common colorways – saffron and maroon – into one.

Somewhat unique to his oeuvre, Ahuja photographs his subject in formal portraiture, sitting in an ornate wooden chair on top of carpet. Holding a Buddhist mala, the elderly monk poses, without facial expression, for the camera.

Was he a highly regarded monk – as his portraiture might suggest? A collection of Burmese postcards has recently been digitized by Stanford University, available here: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/missionarypostcards

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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George Planté’s Hall of a Thousand Buddhas Postcard

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George Planté came to Vietnam as a member of the colonial French government, but by 1893 had turned to photography and opened a studio in Saigon. He soon recognized the desire for postcards among the overseas French military and was selling the inexpensive souvenirs by 1905.

The undivided back design of this French card suggests it was published in 1905 or before. Around this time, Planté seems to have acquired the old stock of Aurélien Pestel, thus the photograph on the front may have been taken by Pestel.

The caption gives the location as Angkor Wat, but this is the interior of the Preah Poan, known commonly as the Hall of a Thousand Buddhas. The presence of the Buddhist statues clearly shows how the original temple devoted to Viṣṇu was taken over by Buddhists.

The statues that once filled the open cruciform hall have all been removed in the course of restoration and preservation.

Photographs from the turn of the century capture how the hall once looked filled with Buddhist icons. Google Arts & Culture has a 360-degree view of the hall today, see here: https://tinyurl.com/yckkbumz

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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Hyōgo Daibutsu at Kobe F.S. Postcard

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The original Hyōgo Daibutsu at Nōfuku-ji was the third largest Buddhist statue in Japan. It was dismantled by the Ordinance on the Collection of Metals issued in 1941 as part of Japanese war efforts during WWII.

Located in the port city of Kobe, the Daibutsu was approximately 12 meters in height. It became a popular tourist destination at the end of the 19th century, thus many photographs and postcards remain of the now lost icon.

This “undivided back” design informs us the postcard was printed before 1907. The “F.S.” in the stamp box refers to the publisher’s name (which I haven’t identified).

Many Japanese postcards of this period were hand-colored collotype prints. You can see the red ink splotches the colorist used to suggest design elements.

An albumen print photograph by Kusakabe Kinbei is held by the Nagasaki University Library, viewable here: http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/zoom/jp/record.php?id=1044

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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Fritz Müller’s Tin How Temple Postcard

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Chinatown’s Iconic Joss House: We lack a rich photographic history of the religious life of San Francisco’s Chinatown before the 1906 earthquake. Of the photos we have, this Chinese temple on Waverly Place is arguably the most iconic – the Tin How Temple.

The goddess Tin How, otherwise known as Mazu, is known for her devoted protection of sailors and close association with early southern Chinese immigrants who came to the US. A close inspection of the second floor reveals her name, Tin How 天后, on plaques beside the doorway.

For a time, different temple shrines occupied the second and third floors of the adjacent building. One shrine was dedicated to the Emperor of the North, Beidi 北帝, who was an old stellar deity popular in the Pearl Delta Region.

Due to the design on the back we know this post card was issued before 1907. The front informs the San Francisco publisher Fritz Müller had the cards printed in Germany, a common occurrence at the time.

For an insightful commentary on how to conceptualize traditional Chinese religion through Mazu worship, see Natasha’s Heller’s “Using Mazu to Teach Key Elements of Chinese Religions” available here: https://tinyurl.com/48smwjx2.

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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Pierre Dieulefils’ Angkor Wat Buddhapada Postcard

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Pierre Dieulefils arrived in Vietnam as part of the French military forces in 1885 and opened a photography studio in Hanoi three years later. In anticipation of the great Exposition coloniale de Marseille, Dieulefils toured Cambodia in 1905 to take photographs of Angkor Wat.

These images of Angkor Wat formed part of his thriving postcard business, driven in part by French officers sending cards home to France. The 1905 print run of cards is known as the red series for the red ink used on the obverse.

One of the objects Dieulefils photographed was this large sculptural footprint of the Buddha. Images of the Buddha’s footprints, called buddhapada, hint at his past presence and are considered venerated relics.

The buddhapada is often depicted with special characteristics, including 108 emblems of auspiciousness. The wheel of the Dharma is most commonly placed at the center of the sole.

This carving, weighing three tons, remained at Angkor Wat from the 14th century until 1985. In 2022 it was put on display at the Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum in Siam-reap, Cambodia.

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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Tooth of the Buddha Reliquary Postcard

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When the British re-enshrined the Buddha’s tooth relic at Kandy’s Temple of the Tooth in 1815, few among the British public were aware of the events. In 1875, however, when the Prince of Wales visits the relic, great interest in the sacred tooth spreads across England.

The undivided back design on the reverse indicates this card was printed before 1902, following British postal code. Unlike today, the message had to be written on the other side of the card, thus the blank space on the bottom edge of the obverse.

The “life story” of the tooth relic is preserved in the Dāṭhavaṃsa, compiled in the early 13th century. According to this work, in the ancient past a non-Buddhist Indian king tried to burn and smash the tooth, but it remained unscathed.

Consequently, as the story goes, the king converted to Buddhism and the tooth eventually made its way to Sri Lanka. Here we see the tooth encased in a stupa-shaped reliquary.

For a small collection of South Asian postcards, including a mailed version of the one shown here, see the offerings by the University of San Diego here: https://tinyurl.com/3nphs2k2.

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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D.A. Ahuja’s Idol Maker Postcard

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As new imagery of British colonial Burma circulated in the early 20th century, one trade received heightened interest: idol carving. The marble quarries north of Mandalay provided sufficient raw materials for the local carving industry centered around the village of Sagyin.

An active stone-workers’ quarter in Mandalay meant foreign travelers could encounter Burmese carvers working on Buddhist statuary. This postcard by D.A. Ahuja captures the crafting of a Mandalay-style marble Buddha, with thick garment folds and a band around the head.

The card reveals a lithographic-halftone hybrid process, whereby a black halftone screen was applied on top of a multi-color lithographic substrate. The reverse design suggests this card was printed around 1910.

Burmese white marble has been fashioned into Buddhist statuary since the Konbaung Dynasty (1752–1885). The trade continues in and around Sagyin and Mandalay today.

For further info on the history of Burmese marble carving and the early spread of Burmese Buddhas into China, see Deng, Beiyin. “Reimagining a Buddhist Cosmopolis: Conveying Marble Buddhas from Burma to China, 1890s-1930s.” Journal of Global Buddhism 24, no. 1 (2023): 25–46.

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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A.W. Plâté’s Reliquary Offering Postcard

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The first private company to sell Singhalese postcards was A. W. Plâté & Co. In 1890 Plâté first opened his photography studio and by 1907 he dominated the domestic postcard market, selling half a million cards that year.

As was common in many parts of the world, this card was printed in Germany, here identified with a rubber stamp. The hand written note describes the colors of the monk’s robes, suggesting this was purchased as an inexpensive photographic souvenir with no intention to mail.

Still in operation, Plâté’s photographic archives are a trove of Singhalese visual records. Can you find the partly obscured Buddha statue among the group of worshiping monks?

There is a Sleeping Buddha statue in just inside the temple doorway.

The monks pay homage to a small reliquary shrine that is dressed with flower offerings. For a discussion of Plâté’s legacy in the history of Singhalese photography, see the article by Benita Stambler here: https://tinyurl.com/sytn2mmd.

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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