Hell Of Impaling

Hell Punishments, left side
Scene 21, Baodingshan, Dazu (map)

The sinner is bound to a post, where he is impaled in the stomach by a hell warden. His sin was eating meat (the sutra-writers, from whom these punishments are derived, were serious vegetarians). The vividness of these images was calculated to make them highly memorable and easy to understand to anyone who saw them.