Erfo Temple in Laitan, Chongqing via BaiDubaike
Speaker: Lina Fan (Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing)
Date and Time: 22 October 2026, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Venue: Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Faculty Building, room 8&9, University of Cambridge.
Abstract: Drawing on a chapter from her forthcoming book, Lina Fan revisits the cliff carvings at Erfo Temple in Laitan, Chongqing, a rare surviving large-scale ensemble of Chan Buddhist sculpture. The lecture traces the site’s development through three stages. The first centred on a monumental seated Maitreya overlooking the confluence of three rivers, evoking the pure land of Maitreya’s descent. The second introduced groups of Chan masters and arhats associated with Dharma transmission, alongside salvific images of Kṣitigarbha, Sengjia-style Guanyin, and Pure Land niches. These carvings brought together Chan lineage traditions, arhat beliefs, sudden enlightenment, and the combined practice of Chan and Pure Land. In the third stage, attendant bodhisattvas and images of a thousand Buddhas were added around Maitreya, reinforcing themes of bodhisattva practice and aspirations for a future Buddhist world.Building on recent systematic archaeological investigations, the lecture examines how successive additions and the reconfiguration of existing images shaped the site’s complex Buddhist programme. It highlights the distinctive regional character of Chan Buddhism in Bashu and reconsiders the place of arhats in Song-dynasty Chan thought and practice.
Speaker: Lina Fan is Associate Professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, and a visiting scholar in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. She received her PhD in Art History from Tsinghua University. Her research focuses on Buddhist art and material culture, alongside the theory and connoisseurship of ancient Chinese calligraphy. She co-authored From Elegant Treasures to the Mobile Museum: The Connoisseurship, Collection and Business of Chinese Ancient Calligraphy (Guangdong Education Publishing House, 2018), which was selected for the “China’s Good Books” award by the China Society of Book Review. Her longstanding research on arhat imagery examines sculptures, murals, and other monastic remains from the Song to the Qing dynasties, with a related monograph forthcoming.
“Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond” Lecture Series:
This lecture series, launched in Michaelmas Term 2023, features talks on writing and publishing in the Buddhist tradition and in related religious and cultural spheres. Lectures in this series offer insights into the various ways in which writing and printing has been shaping Buddhism, as well as the multifaceted impact of Buddhism on book culture in East Asia, past, present, and future.
This lecture series is organised by Dr Noga Ganany (ng462@cam.ac.uk) in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge with the generous support of the Glorisun Global Network.
