Section of The Amitabha Sutra

Unidentified

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Amida Sutra (Sanskrit: Sukhavativyuha Sutra), one of two Mahayana Buddhist scriptural texts that describe the beautiful Pure Land paradise of Amida (Sanskrit: Amitabha) Buddha, was inscribed in alternating lines of gold and silver inks on a paper repeatedly soaked in a dark blue indigo dye intended to resemble the color of precious lapis lazuli. This style of sutra transcription was popular from the twelfth through the fourteenth century, when wealthy patrons commissioned richly executed sutra scrolls such as this as offerings to temples, in the hope of gaining spiritual merit. It was a commonly held belief that the copying of sacred texts improved one’s chance to achieve salvation, and patrons supplied artists with expensive and valuable materials with which to work, in lieu of copying the texts themselves. Once they had been dedicated to a temple, scrolls of this quality were stored in sutra repositories and rarely used; hence their survival in good condition.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art