Paradise of Maitreya
The Paradise of Maitreya () is a wall painting created by Zhu Haogu during China's Yuan Dynasty. The painting was originally housed in the Xinghua Si Temple of Xiaoning, Shanxi. During the 1920s and 1930s, it was disassembled and moved to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) of Toronto, Canada, where it remains today. Museum officials have undertaken a series of restorations to preserve and stabilize the painting. Currently, it can be found in the museum's "Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art" as part of the Far Eastern Collection and is described as one of its must-see Iconic Objects. The painting features the Bodhisattva Maitreya, a future Buddha who is foretold to appear on Earth in order to help humans achieve enlightenment through the teachings of dharma. Composition As it stands today, the wall painting measures 502 cm in height and 1101 cm in length and has a symmetrical composition, notable for its high level of detail. It features Buddha Maitreya in the centre of an imagined heaven, surrounded on both sides by monks and the ruling king and queen. Although Buddha Maitreya is commonly depicted as an Indian figure, all of the characters in The Paradise of Maitreya are