Hands clasped in reverence but playfully perched on one leg like in a yoga class, 善财童子 (Shan Cai Tong Zi) is one of the best-known acolytes of the iconic Goddess of Mercy.
In one of the many versions of his origin story, he is a boy from a wealthy family who visits 53 teachers in a determined attempt to seek truth and wisdom. His teachers included monks, gods and ordinary folks, reflecting how wisdom can be found in many places.
In our shop’s traditional iconography, his youth is captured in his eyebrows, which are neither white and wispy like the elderly Tua Peh Kong nor ferocious like the warrior Guan Gong, but thin, black and ending in a cheeky squiggle.
His skin tone is not the paler beige of elderly deities nor the sun-kissed beige of mighty warriors, but the gentle pinkish beige of a child.
Instead of bulky armour or elegant regalia, he dons a bareback肚兜, an undergarment typically worn by children in ancient China.
“Embroidered” on the “cloth” are intricate motifs of blossoming peonies, swirling clouds and leaping ocean waves depicted with thin threads of holy joss stick ash. The handcrafting is painstaking, for the statue is only 10 inches tall.
In his perfectly-balanced stance, one can be reminded of the broader theme of finding equilibrium.
And in the lotus flower atop which he stands, we are reminded of how purity can bloom, even if one was once stuck in the sticky mud of worldly attachments.
These soft and playful elements provide the balance to the resolve and calm in his eyes: He is a boy with eyes of a sage.
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