Da Mo / Bodhidharma Crosses the River

This wall scroll features Da Mo crossing a river (he may floating across the river on a reed - a special power that the legendary Damo possesses.

It's generally believed that Da Mo (or Dharma) directly went on to establish "Chan Buddhism" in China. When this form of Buddhism hit Japan, it became known as Zen Buddhism (Chan is the Chinese pronunciation of the same Kanji character known as Zen in Japan).

More Zen and other Buddhism terms

This part is going to confuse you, as this man is sometimes portrayed as being Persian, Indian, or Chinese. And he has been given many names such as Bodhidharma or simply Dharma. He has a name in virtually every language. Here are a few of them:

In Chinese, his name is . This is sometimes Romanized as Da Mo, Damo, Tamo, or the full name Putidamo or Putitamo.
His Name in Japanese is "Daruma" which is probably meant to sound like "Dharma" as in "Bodhi-Dharma".
In Korean he is Boridalma.
Vietnamese: Bồ-đề-đạt-ma.

If you want to know more about Bodhidharma / Da Mo you can probably do a terrific Bodhidharma Google search.

About the Art...

This is a very detailed painting that is mounted to a silk wall scroll. A lot of work went into this. It actually takes the artist almost a full day to complete.

You won't be disappointed if you become the owner of this work of art. I guarantee it personally or your money back.

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About the Artist...

The artist's name is 中奇 or Zhong Qi. To the left of the title, the smaller characters read 戊子年 中奇 which indicates this was painted in 2008 by Zhong Qi.