346 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



the Fangs hih mo p'u, which is a work of great merit and value for the 

 study of decorative and pictorial motives. 



It is not yet ascertained how old this form of Samantabhadra mount- 

 ed on the elephant is, and there is reason to believe that it originated 

 in China, not in India. In the Lamaist iconography of Tibet this form 

 is strikingly absent, and the god is usually represented as sitting on the 



Fig. 202. 



"Brushing the Elephant" 



(Woodcut from Fang-shih mo p'u). 



seed-pod of a lotus-flower (see A. Grunwedel, Mythologie des Bud- 

 dhismus, p. 140). Also in China, a sitting image of his has been 

 preserved, likewise a carving in jade illustrated in the Ku yii Vu p'u 

 (Fig. 203) and preceding the one just described. It is entitled: "Mir- 

 aculous Buddhist image, of ancient jade, representing the Great Master 

 P'u-m6n (Samantabhadra)." It is carved out of a slab of pure-white 

 flawless jade, measuring two feet four inches in height, two feet in width, 

 two inches and two-tenths in thickness. On this picture, the Bo- 



