Interestingly, in the table screen depicting the Taoist deity Doumu and her entourage (Figure 3), the gilded screen displays an unusual image of the Dipper Mother in the depiction of the Bodhisattva Marici. The Doumu who has the aforementioned three heads and eight arms rides on a chariot pulled by seven boars with sitting position on the lotus. The screen provokes how the Buddhist Marici has been reappropriated into a venerated Daoist deity. The scripts of Marici Sutra as Spoken by the Buddha determines that the Marici should be made with gold, silver, copper, or sandalwood. In contrast, the gilded relief presentation of Doumu is rather unrecord in Daoist literature. The materiality of the screen and visual similarity of the goddess figure exemplifies the direct juxtaposition of Daoist mounting the Dipper Mother under the gestures of Buddhist Marici. …show more content…
For instance, the goddess is identified as Doumu due to its upholding of two round disks symbolizing the sun and the moon in her upper hands. Doumu, also named as the Mother of the Dipper, described in her major scripture Doumu jing, her leadership role among the nine stars initiated in the moment when she was impregnated by lotus flowers and gave birth to the nine stars. Together they form a divine residency on the Northern Heaven. While people usually observe only seven starts in the Dipper, in this sense, the seven boars pulling Doumu's chariot is now read as manifestations of the seven stars in the religious