78cm
30¾"
30¾"
78.2cm
30¾"
30¾"
Approximate Measurements
Artwork Panel: 68.2cm x 68cm ≈ 26¾" x 26¾"
Silk/Brocade Border: 78.2cm x 78cm ≈ 30¾" x 30¾"
This painting depicts one version of folklore regarding this key figure in Buddhism. The story goes that Da Mo stood, facing or staring at a wall for 9 years to seek an answer to life, the universe, and everything.
The Chinese title is "Da Mo Shen Wu Tu" which is directly translated above.
This happened during the northern kingdom of Wei, inside a cave by a Shaolin Monastery. Most accounts say that he stared at the wall without saying a single word for all of those years.
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).
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, 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.
This is a nicely-detailed painting that is mounted with a white silk brocade border.
You won't be disappointed if you become the owner of this work of art. I guarantee it personally or your money back.
The artist's name is 
(Wang Wen-Hua) who lives in the Jinan area of Shandong Province in Northern China. He specializes in traditional figure paintings and subjects like this (especially Buddhism and philosophy-related themes).
This was painted on Chinese xuan paper (often incorrectly called "rice paper"). The artist used watercolors throughout.
After buying this from the artist in Jinan, I rolled it up in a tube, and put it in my backpack. I then took the 5-hour-train ride back to our workshop in Beijing. At the workshop, it was laminated to more sheets of xuan paper and a silk border was added by our skilled craftsmen. See more about mounting Asian art