[EXAMPLE EXHIBITION] Sacred Lotus: Prints from the NYPL’s Rare Books Collections

Nyphæa nelumbo. The sacred Egyptian bean. 1807. Painting by Henderson, engraved by Burke & Lewis. Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Collections

The lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is an aquatic plant that plays a central role in the art of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.

In Asian art a lotus throne is a stylized lotus flower used as the seat or base for a figure. It is the normal pedestal for divine figures in Buddhist art and Hindu art, and often seen in Jain art. Originating in Indian art, it followed Indian religions to East Asia in particular.

The White Lotus of Egyptian Iconography
The ancient Egyptians cultivated the white lotus in ponds and marshes. They believed that the lotus flower gave them strength and power; remains of the flower have been found in the burial tomb of Ramesses II. Egyptian tomb paintings from around 1500 BC provide some of the earliest physical evidence of ornamental horticulture and landscape design; they depict lotus ponds surrounded by symmetrical rows of acacias and palms. At that time, the motifs of importance are those based on the lotus and papyrus plants respectively, and these, with the palm tree capital, were the chief types employed by the Egyptians, until under the Ptolemies in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, various other river plants were also employed, and the conventional lotus capital went through various modifications.

Plates from “Pantheon egyptien : collection des personnages mythologiques de l’ancienne Egypte, d’apres les monuments, avec un texte explicatif.” 1825. Dubois, L. J. J. Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Collections

Illustration from “De materia medica by Pedanios Dioscorides of Anazarbos” (fl. 1st century A.D.) translated into Arabic from the Syriac translation of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-ʻIbādī (809?-873) by Mihrân ibn Mansûr ibn Mihrân (fl. 12th cent.). Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Collections

The ancient Egyptians also extracted perfume from this flower. They also used the white lotus in funerary garlands, temple offerings and female adornment. Women often wore amulets during childbirth, which depicted Heqet as a frog, sitting in a lotus.

The plant contains an alkaloid, nupharin, and related chemicals, described according to sources as poisonous, intoxicating or without effects, it seems to have been consumed since Antiquity. The effects of the alkaloids would be those of a psychedelic aphrodisiac, though these effects are more those encountered in Nymphaea caerulea, the blue Egyptian water lily.

“Gathering lotus (late summer).” 1768. Harunobu Suzuki. Woodcut. Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Collections

The Lotus Throne in Buddhism
In Buddhist symbolism, the lotus represents purity of the body, speech and mind, as if floating above the murky waters of material attachment and physical desire. According to legend, Gautama Buddha’s first steps made lotus flowers appear everywhere he stepped.[8] In Tibet, Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born, is considered the Second Buddha, having brought Buddhism to that country by conquering or converting local deities; he is normally depicted holding a flower.[9]

In Asian art a lotus throne is a stylized lotus flower used as the seat or base for a figure. It is the normal pedestal for divine figures in Buddhist art and Hindu art, and often seen in Jain art. Originating in Indian art, it followed Indian religions to East Asia in particular. Lotus thrones are the normal pedestal for most important figures in Buddhist art.

Plates from “thirty-seven nats, a phase of spirit-worship prevailing in Burma,” by Sir R. C. Temple. 1906. Chromolithographs. William Griggs. Courtesy New York Public Library Digital Collections

This exhibition has been provided as an example of how images can be displayed in the Metropolitan Archivist.