Bhaiṣajyaguru, formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja ("King of Medicine Master and Lapis Lazuli Light"), is the Buddha of healing and medicine in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Commonly referred to as the "Medicine Buddha", he is described as a doctor who cures dukkha (suffering) using the medicine of his teachings.

Bhaiṣajyaguru's original name and title was rāja (King), but Xuanzang translated it as Tathāgata (Buddha). Subsequent translations and commentaries followed Xuanzang in describing him as a Buddha. The image of Bhaiṣajyaguru is usually expressed with a canonical Buddha-like form holding a gallipot and, in some versions, possessing blue skin. Though also considered to be a guardian of the East, in most cases Akshobhya is given that role. As an exceptional case, the honzon of "Kōya-san Kongōbu-ji" was changed from Akshobhya to Bhaiṣajyaguru.

Bhaiṣajyaguru is described in the eponymous Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja Sūtra, commonly called the Medicine Buddha Sutra, as a bodhisattva who made 12 great vows. On achieving Buddhahood, he became the Buddha of the eastern pure land of Vaiḍūryanirbhāsa "Pure Lapis Lazuli". There, he is attended to by two bodhisattvas symbolizing the light of the sun and the light of the moon respectively:
Suryaprabha (Chinese: 日光遍照菩薩; rìguāng biànzhào púsà)
Candraprabha (Chinese: 月光遍照菩薩; yuèguāng biànzhào púsà)

A Sanskrit manuscript of the Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja Sūtra was among the texts attesting to the popularity of Bhaiṣajyaguru in the ancient northwest Indian kingdom of Gandhāra. The manuscripts in this find are dated before the 7th century, and are written in the upright Gupta script.

The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Mahāsāṃghika monastery at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in the 7th century CE, and the site of this monastery has been rediscovered by archaeologists. Birchbark manuscript fragments from several Mahāyāna sūtras have been discovered at the site, including the Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaidūrya-prabha-rāja Sūtra (MS 2385).

Iconography:
Bhaiṣajyaguru is typically depicted seated, wearing the three robes of a Buddhist monk, holding a lapis-colored jar of medicine nectar in his left hand and the right hand resting on his right knee, holding the stem of the Aruna fruit or Myrobalan between thumb and forefinger. In the sutra, he is also described by his aura of lapis lazuli-colored light. In Chinese depictions, he is sometimes holding a pagoda, symbolising the ten thousand Buddhas of the three periods of time. He is also depicted standing on a Northern Wei stele from approximately 500 AD now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accompanied by his two attendants, Suryaprabha and Candraprabha. Within the halo are depicted the Seven Bhaiṣajyaguru Buddhas and seven apsaras.
(Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org)

The medicine Buddha, the Teacher of Medicine and the king of Lapis Lazuli Light (Bhaishajyaguru, Sangye Menla, Vaidurya). His radiant body is azure blue. His left hand is in the meditation mudra and holds a begging bowl full of long life nectar in his lap. As a sign that he gives protection from illness, his right hand is outstretched in the gesture of giving and holds the "great medicine", the myrobalan plant (a-ru-ra).-----Source: www.men-tsee-khang.org (Website no longer exists)

Paradise of Bhaisajyaguru

"Paradise of Bhaisajyaguru"
Buddha wall mural in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Created after 1309, before 1319 (during the Yuan Dynasty). Paint on plaster, 24 ft. 8 in. x 49 ft. 7 in. Located in the Main Hall of Asian Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, United States

Buddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru (Yaoshi fo 薬師佛)

Buddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru (Yaoshi fo 薬師佛)
Period:Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). Chinese Painting. Date:ca. 1319
Dimensions:H. 24 ft. 8 in. (751.8 cm); W. 49 ft. 7 in. (1511.3 cm)
Medium:Water-based pigment over foundation of clay mixed with straw

Healing practices, physical and spiritual, played an important role in the transmission of Buddhism throughout Asia. In this mural, Bhaishajyaguru (Yaoshi fo), the Buddha of medicine, wears a red robe and is attended by a large assembly of related deities, including two seated bodhisattvas who hold symbols for the sun and the moon. The twelve warriors, six at each side, symbolize the Buddha’s vows to help others. The robust, full-faced figure and the shallow spatial construction are characteristic of the work of Zhu Haogu, who was active in the early fourteenth century and painted both Buddhist and Daoist imagery.

The Pure Land of Bhaisajyaguru

The Pure Land of Bhaisajyaguru   Detail of The Pure Land of Bhaisajyaguru
The whole of this large wall mural was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a gift by Arthur M. Sackler, in honor of his parents, Isaac and Sophie, in 1965.

The Healing Buddha Bhaishajyaguru

Bronze statue of The Healing Buddha Bhaishajyaguru
Bronze, H. 9.5 cm. Khocho, 6th- 7th century
Museum fur Indische Kunst (MIK III 6125)

Representations of the Healing Buddha were very popular, especially where the culture of East Asia was predominant. The head with its Chinese features is encircled by a large nimbus; the hair is tied up in a broad knot. The Buddha is wearing an undergarment, a robe, and a covering shawl. His right hand is turned outward at hip level, his left hand holds a medicine bowl in front of his chest.

There is a tenon under the feet by which the figure can be attached to a base. The back is not modeled. The bronze has a green patina.

The folds of the robe and the slightly forward position of the head suggest that this statuette was modeled on prototypes created during the Chinese Sui dynasty (589-618).

Additional Images of Bronze statue of The Healing Buddha Bhaishajyaguru

The Healing Buddha Bhaishajyaguru

Temple banner painting of the Healing Buddha Baishajyaguru
Painting on ramie, 90.5 x 27.5 cm. Khocho, 8th- 9th century
Museum fur Indische Kunst (MIK III 4803)

On both sides of this slightly damaged temple banner the Healing Buddha is portrayed seated on a lotus pedestal. In his left hand he holds a bowl, while his right hand is raised, probably in the gesture of teaching. Head and body are surrounded by a nimbus and mandorla.

On one side of the banner the Buddha's pedestal is supported by a kneeling monk on upstretched hands. On either side of the monk kneels a donor, a Uighurian woman with hands joined in front of the breast. Next to the woman on the right a small, almost naked child with raised right hand can just be made out.

On the other side of the painting the Buddha's pedestal is borne by a Uighurian nobleman in a green robe and a black, helmet-type headgear, seated with his legs crossed. His hands, raised above his head, are concealed by the long, hanging sleeves of his robe. On the left is a kneeling monk, on the right two girls standing in long red robes, their hands joined before them.

A temple banner with a similar configuration found in Tun-huang bears a cartouche with the inscription in Chinese: "Homage to the Buddha Baishajyaguru" (see Matsumoto Eiichi 1937, pi. 38).

In the triangular space at the top of the banner sits a small meditating Buddha, separated from the main picture by an ornamental band.

The cult of the Healing Buddha, to which this banner belongs, seems to have arisen in Central Asia. None of the Chinese pilgrims to India mentions the cult in his records. The Baishajyaguru sutra was already known in China in the fourth century A.D., which is also the date of its earliest pictorial representations. According to a sixth-century commentary, the sutra deals among other things with ways of prolonging one's life, an aspect which is very important in Chinese thinking.