About the Book
The Tun-huang caves are the
sparkle of Buddhist art over the centuries, situated at the foot of the
Mountain of Singing Sands, they are the brush of the Buddha, where an itinerant
monk Yueh-ts’un watched the iridescent peaks in the
sheen of blue satin, settled down to excavate the first cave in AD344, and to
paint its walls with colours brought by birds as the folk legends has it.
Speechless with joy, he had began a long journey of a
thousand years of Buddhist meditation in the dazzling ecstasies of murals,
scrolls and sculptures. This book reproduces and describes for the first time
the paintings from Tun-huang in the National Museum,
New Delhi. The 143 best scrolls have been narrated whose colours are still
radiant images of the divine. The National Museum is one of the three major repositories
of the Tun-huang paintings, the others being the
British Museum London and the Musee Guimet, Paris. While the two latter collections have been
published, this book fulfils a long-felt need and will cover a major lacuna of
research in presenting the third large repository. The introduction traces the
history of Tun-huang from the dreams of Chinese
emperors to control the Deep Sands, the role of Yueh-chihs,
the excavation of the first cave, the folk legends, the iconography of the
murals from AD397-1368, etc. The Scrolls from Tun-huang
are the charm of these caverns that once drew humans to their depths.
About the
Author
Lokesh Chandra is an
internationally renowned scholar of Tibetan, Mongolian and Sino-Japanese
Buddhism. A prolific writer, he has to his credit 600 works, including critical
editions of classical text in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mangolian,
Chinese and Old Javanese language. Among them are classics like the Tibetan
Sanskrit Dictionary, Material for a History of Tibetan Literature, Buddhist
Iconography of Tibet and the Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography in 15 volumes. Lokesh Chandra was nominated by the President of India to
the Parliament in 1974-80, and again in 1980-86. He has been Vice President of
the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and
Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research. Presently he is
Director, International Academy of Indian Culture.
Preface
Tun-huang is the dream child of the Avatamsaka tradition of contemplation as it unfolded in Bamiyan. Both are marvels and wonders of the mind in their
intensity and clarity, in their furling and unfurling of meditation. They are
the quiet and kind strength of the bright and blushing light of nirvana. Here
ecstasies were born, flourished and vanished. The classical anthology of Vidyakara, a dignitary in the Buddhist monastery of Jagaddala, cites a poem by Krsnabhatta.
The galaxy and the atom
both are matter: both exist.
Tun-huang and Bamiyan
are the twin soul, wherefrom beauty of being filters through the sieve of sculptures,
scrolls, murals and sutras, They are the spiritual environment of trees,
rivers, dunes and hills, all radiant in the beatitude of the Middle Path of the
Buddha. They invite us to a reformation of our civilisation that will begin
with reflection on time. They are images of the divinity of man, the barefoot
light on the fountain of our whole Being.
The first cave at Tun-huang
was dug by Yueh-ts'un who was on his way to the
Western Regions. Coming to Tun-huang with his
disciples he was mesmerised by a sparkling river, parasol trees, poplars and
willows, aroma of melons and other fruits, the miraculous waters of the springs
nearby and the irridescence of the peaks of the Sanwei mountains. His disciple who had gone to fetch the
sacred waters did not return and had settled down to dig a cave, paint its
walls and create sculptures in the crushing majesty of the landscape. The air
rustling with invisible presences was now inhabited by mysterious beings in the
metaphysic of murals. The master Yueh-ts'un decided
to create a sangha in the mountain among Singing
Sands and gave up his pilgrimage to the West. It was the consecration of the
endlessly changing aspects of nature as the light of cosmical
consciousness which unfolds spiritual awareness, a spring of dazzling light no
human words can describe. The first cave was opened in AD 366. The name Chien-fo-tung "Thousand Buddha Caves" derives
from the legend that a monk dreamt of a cloud with the Thousand Buddhas above the valley.
The choice of a place for meditation had to be a
site of pure and pleasing water which yields flowers and fruits. Lotus ponds,
parks, divine shrines, waterfalls, caitya halls,
quiet places, and other sites of natural charm are mentioned in the Vairocanabhisambodhi-sutra as appropriate for meditation (Wayman 1992:116, 312). The transparent veil of universal
mystery has to the locus of contemplation wherein unfathomable depths are born
of subtle self-analysis as the embodiment of enlightened meditation. The
surrounds of Tun-huang provided the idyllic and
serene ambience to forget the samsara and sink into meditation. Thus Mo-kao-k'u "Grottoes of
Immeasurable Height", or Chien-
fo-tung "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" became the glittering Sumeru
from the strategic commandery of Tun-huang
"The Blazing Beacon" of the Han period. Its hundreds of caves were
and are a pageant of Buddhist paradises with a sparkling galaxy of divine
images, symbolising metaphysical spheres of inner experiences in a journey
along the spiritual path.
The Avatamsaka sutras are
a collection of thirty nine texts. Individual texts as well as the complete
corpus were translated into Chinese from AD 167 to AD
798. The Tathagat- acintya-guhya-nirdesa
gives the arising of the Thousand Buddhas. It was
translated by Dharmaraksa of Tun-huang
in AD 280. Thus the Avatamsaka was known in Tun-huang
86 years before the first cave was dug. The cult of the Thousand Buddhas must have been popular at Tun-huang,
whence the disciple of Yueh-ts'un saw them in the
clouds as well as Maitreya who is the first future
Buddha in the system of Thousand Buddhas, while Rocana is the last or thousandth. Cleary (1983:9) speaks of
"a pure mind entering into all realms of knowledge, a clearly aware mind
perceiving the adornments of the site of enlightenment". As soon as the
first cave was dug out, its adornment in multiplicity of colours was the first
step. The essence of thusness (tathata) or the pure mind is
"luminous or completely illumined" and inherently pure. Two functions
of this essence are "oceanic reflection" and the complete
illumination of the realm of reality (Cleary 1983:147). The Chinese word hua-yen for Avatamsaka
means "flower ornament". The Avatamsaka
arose and developed in the Bamiyan region and in the Lamkan Valley. The word Lamkan is
the famous city of Ramma or Rammaka
in the Pali texts and Ramyaka
in Sanskrit. Dipankara the Buddha of the Past was
born in the Rammavati metropolis. The last sutra of
the Avatamsaka corpus is called Rarnyaka-sutra
and it was translated into Chinese by Aryasthira in AD 388-407. It is also termed Gandavyuha. Ganda at the beginning of a
compound means 'best, excellent' (MW). So Gandavyuha
means "The Excellent Array, The Outstanding Cosmos", parallel to Sukhavati-vyuha. It connotes the paradise of Rocana whose adjective is Abhyucca-deua or Colossal Deity (see details in Lokesh Chandra 1997: CHI 6.32-51). Rowland 1971:38 says:
"It would be safer to consider the lesser colossus as a work of no earlier
than the year 200". Its inhabitants were of hardy Tokharian
stock (Carter 1986:117). The Tokharians were present
in Xinjiang as early as the second millennium BC. Rowland sees the Larger 175 feet colossus in its painted niche as a universal
AdiBuddha such as Vairocana
(Carter 1986: 121). He is actually Rocana the last of
the Thousand Buddhas of the Avatamsaka.
The motifs and themes of the Ming-oi of Kizil bear
close resemblance to those of Bamiyan. Rowland
1971:42: " ... the resemblance of the various
styles and techniques of the paintings at Bamiyan and
Kakrak to the wall paintings of Kizil and Murtuq demonstrates ... the role of Afghanistan in the
diffusion of influences to Central Asia and the Far East". The natural
surrounds of Tun-huang are paralled
to the Bamiyan river, its chinar
trees, the entire landscape of hills and sprawling plains: "are of the
most dramatic panoramas of Asia" (Rowland 1966:95) Tun-huang
follows the pattern of the Bamiyan cliff honeycombed
with vat complexes of cave chapels, some of them connected by galleries within,
and along the front of the precipice. The disciple of Yueh-ts'un
had a vision of Maitreya whence he sat out to dig the
first cave. The gigantic painting of the Sun God in his chariot on the soffit
of the niche of the Smaller Colossus at the eastern end of Bamiyan
identifies the colossus as Maitreya. Maitreya and Rocana are 'Twin Buddhas' of the Avatamsaka. The Maitreya envisioned by the disciple refers to the Avatarnsaka which was well known by the translation of the irdesa by Dharmaraksa of Tun-huang. Yueh-ts'un and his
disciples could have heard of the natural charm and iconic grandeur of Bamiyan and could have been on their way to Bamiyan. At Tun-huang
they visualised the crucial
iconography of Bamiyan in the radiant clouds reflecting
the Ten Bodhisattvas from the mystic clouds of the Gandavyuha.
They settled down at Tun- huang
to create a veritable paradise of Rocana Buddha in
the transcendent adornment of the caves so that they are the realm of hua-yen "flower ornament"
or as Maitreya says: "they know that all things
are like reflected images, but the Bodhisattvas do not despise any
world"(Cleary 1983:8).
This work describes and contextualises 143 paintings
out of 277 in the National Museum, New Delhi. Some scrolls have faded leaving
faint traces of colour and these have not been included. The art of Tun-huang has been phased in three periods. The first period with a marked influence
of Gandhara cover four dynastie
from AD 397 to 581. The second period span the Sui and Tang dynasties,
from AD 581 to 907 when it attained
its climax of aesthetic excellence, sumptuous paradises, sutras unfolding
various spiritual worlds. The two large Vajrapani
guarding the entrance of cave 427 in the early 7th century were an innovation,
representing Narayana and Mahesvara as guardians.
They came to be known as 'Two Kings' or Ni-6 in Japan, and are colossal
sculptures. The Northern Colossus of Maitreya in cave
96 dated to AD 695 and the Southern
Colossus of Rocana in cave 130 is dated AD 721. The third and last period pertains to the
Five Dynasties, Sung, Hsi-hsia and Yuan, covering
over four centuries from AD 907
to 1368.
The Tibetans ruled Tun-huang
from AD 781 to 847 and they donated
a number of caves with new architectural features, new subjects and new pallete of colours. The 'Emperor of Tibet' is shown in the
paining of cave 158, which is the largest as it has a gigantic figure of Lord
Buddha in nirvana. A little lower than the Tibetan Emperor is the Chinese
Emperor. Large-size royal portraits were an innovation that was followed later
on by their successor rulers of the Ch'ang and Ts'ao families. The Ts'ao family
which came to rule Tun-huang in AD 906 had close marital
relations with Khotan. The Ch'ang
family celebrated the return of Tun-huang to the
Chinese by the heroic victory of Ch'ang I-ch'ao. They sanctified his hallowed memory by huge
portraits in cave 98. The King of Khotan and the Uigur Queen too are depicted in larger than life portraits.
The donor figures increased, in contrast to the earlier caves where no regal
representations are seen. Tun-huang was the diaspora of the Khotanese
royalty, nobility, monks and others escaping from the genocide and scorched
earth aggression of Islamic Kashgar. Tun-huang survived these ravages of religious fanaticism
and it is celebrated in Chinese poems written on the walls of the caves.
The Tiger Monk has eluded identification as an
individual. He represents a generic type
of monks who were experts in
the martial arts and escorted itinerant bhiksus
across long distances. The warrior-trained monks were to guard the holy relics,
the treasures of shrines, and teachers of Dharma from robbers (Tomio 1994: 194). Combatant monks are mentioned in the Sarvastivada-Vinaya (T24), Ekottaragama
(T2), and Udanavarga (T4). The Asokavadana
translated by Fa Ch'uan in AD 300 lists 32 sacred places
at which Asoka built a stupa. These include the hall
at which young Siddhartha studied the martial arts.
The mudras in the Tun-huang paintings and murals need to be studied in
detail. Though in keeping with the traditional iconography, at times they
represent regional variants or more sophisticated versions of the classical
gestures. For example, Waley says that the Buddha in
Stein 518 has the right hand in vitarka-rnudra near
the chest and the left lies horizontal below it. It is a painting of Lord
Buddha granting fearlessness from evil and the gesture of argumentation (vitarka) does not accord with its function. We have identified it as the abhaya-mudra in kataka with the elegant
rondure Gzasalea 'ring') of the hands. The
left is in the dhyana-mudra, The abhaya
and varada-mudras of Lord Buddha had been identified
as vitarka by Waley due to
their nexus with the annularity of the kataka. The mudras have been re-interpreted to accord with their ritual
function.
The mudra of the Sun-Moon Avalokitesvara
is for granting refuge: it is the sarana-mudra. It
has been identified anew from the mudra of Tara and Avalokitesvara
in their role as protectors from the 'eight great perils' Casta- mahabhaya-trdna) .
We have spent glorious years on these scrolls of Tun-huang in their supernal appearances as a direct
experience of a cosmic consciousness whose radiance fills centuries of Sino-
Indian visions that sway, surge, throb, and hold rhythms of their own in the
boundless wonder of impermanence. They are the wisdom that transcend? delusions, and the boundless mind that endures beyond the
ups and downs of life's flow. From the visual domain they are the way to finer,
subtler spheres of the arupa,
an ascent from
the world of space and time to the timeless omnipresence.
Contents
Preface |
7 |
TUN-HUANG
OVER THE CENTURIES |
|
Terror
of the terrain and quest of the beyond |
13 |
The
deep sands and imperial dreams |
13 |
Permanent
Chinese settlement in the Kansu Corridor |
15 |
Yueh-chih introduced Buddhist Sutras |
16 |
Yueh-chih Dharmaraksa (AD 230-308, active in
268-308) as the first great translator |
17 |
The
Sutra Route |
19 |
Khotan as a source of jade and sutras |
19 |
Tun-huang in a Niya document of AD 269 |
20 |
TUN
-HUAG: GALAXY OF DIVINE IMAGES |
|
Yueh-ts'un's disciple excavates the first cave in AD 366 |
21 |
Avatamsaka and Tun-huang |
22 |
Radiant
memories in folk legends |
22 |
Five-colour
Maiden |
23 |
Drops
of amrta tipped off by Avalokitesvara
in the river near Tun-huang |
24 |
First
period of the caves (AD 397-581) |
24 |
Early
Caves |
25 |
Northern
Wei (AD 439-534) |
25 |
Sung-yun of Tun-huang |
26 |
Western
Wei (AD 535-556) |
26 |
Northern
Chou (AD 557-581) |
27 |
Second
period of the caves (AD 581-907) |
28 |
Sui
Dynasty (AD 581-618) |
29 |
Early
Tang (AD 618-704) |
31 |
The
Northern and Southern Colossi |
33 |
Tun-huang as a strategic centre (AD 705-780) |
34 |
Flourishing
Tang (AD 705-780) |
34 |
Middle
Tang when Tibetans rule Tun-huang from AD 781 to 847 |
35 |
Late
Tang (AD 848-907) |
38 |
Third
period of the caves (AD 907-1368) |
39 |
Tun-huang as the diaspora of Khotan
after its Islamisation |
40 |
Tiger
Monk |
42 |
Jade beauties
to flying devis |
45 |
Thousand
Buddhas |
48 |
TUN-HUANG PAINTINGS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM |
|
Lord
Buddha (ill. 1-10) |
51 |
Famous
Buddhist images (ill. 11) |
62 |
Amitabha: Buddha
of Infinite Light (ill. 12-21) |
82 |
Bhaisajyaguru: the Buddha of Healing (ill. 22) |
99 |
Maitreya Bodhisattva (ill. 23) |
106 |
Avalokitesvara: the Supernal Compassion (ill. 24-35) |
108 |
Eleven-headed
Avalokitesvara (ill. 37-44) |
126 |
Thousand-armed
Avalokitesvara: Kinesis of the Measureless (ill. 45-51) |
138 |
Sun-Moon
Avalokitesvara (ill. 52-55) |
161 |
Tiger
Monk |
161 |
Manjusri (ill. 57-59) |
170 |
Ksitigarbha (ill. 60-63) |
174 |
Five
Transcendental Bodhisattvas (ill. 64-68) |
182 |
Votive
Bodhisattvas (ill. 69-130) |
190 |
The
Four Lokapalas (ill. 131-140) |
242 |
Vajrapani Dharmapala (ill.
141-142) |
256 |
Seven
Treasures of the State (ill. 143) |
258 |
LITERATURE
CITED |
259 |
CHRONOLOGICAL
FOOTHOLDS |
264 |
CHINESE
DYNASTIES |
267 |
CONCORDANCE
OF CH., STEIN, NATIONAL MUSEUM AND BOOK NUNBERS |
268 |
INDEX |
275 |
About the Book
The Tun-huang caves are the
sparkle of Buddhist art over the centuries, situated at the foot of the
Mountain of Singing Sands, they are the brush of the Buddha, where an itinerant
monk Yueh-ts’un watched the iridescent peaks in the
sheen of blue satin, settled down to excavate the first cave in AD344, and to
paint its walls with colours brought by birds as the folk legends has it.
Speechless with joy, he had began a long journey of a
thousand years of Buddhist meditation in the dazzling ecstasies of murals,
scrolls and sculptures. This book reproduces and describes for the first time
the paintings from Tun-huang in the National Museum,
New Delhi. The 143 best scrolls have been narrated whose colours are still
radiant images of the divine. The National Museum is one of the three major repositories
of the Tun-huang paintings, the others being the
British Museum London and the Musee Guimet, Paris. While the two latter collections have been
published, this book fulfils a long-felt need and will cover a major lacuna of
research in presenting the third large repository. The introduction traces the
history of Tun-huang from the dreams of Chinese
emperors to control the Deep Sands, the role of Yueh-chihs,
the excavation of the first cave, the folk legends, the iconography of the
murals from AD397-1368, etc. The Scrolls from Tun-huang
are the charm of these caverns that once drew humans to their depths.
About the
Author
Lokesh Chandra is an
internationally renowned scholar of Tibetan, Mongolian and Sino-Japanese
Buddhism. A prolific writer, he has to his credit 600 works, including critical
editions of classical text in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mangolian,
Chinese and Old Javanese language. Among them are classics like the Tibetan
Sanskrit Dictionary, Material for a History of Tibetan Literature, Buddhist
Iconography of Tibet and the Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography in 15 volumes. Lokesh Chandra was nominated by the President of India to
the Parliament in 1974-80, and again in 1980-86. He has been Vice President of
the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and
Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research. Presently he is
Director, International Academy of Indian Culture.
Preface
Tun-huang is the dream child of the Avatamsaka tradition of contemplation as it unfolded in Bamiyan. Both are marvels and wonders of the mind in their
intensity and clarity, in their furling and unfurling of meditation. They are
the quiet and kind strength of the bright and blushing light of nirvana. Here
ecstasies were born, flourished and vanished. The classical anthology of Vidyakara, a dignitary in the Buddhist monastery of Jagaddala, cites a poem by Krsnabhatta.
The galaxy and the atom
both are matter: both exist.
Tun-huang and Bamiyan
are the twin soul, wherefrom beauty of being filters through the sieve of sculptures,
scrolls, murals and sutras, They are the spiritual environment of trees,
rivers, dunes and hills, all radiant in the beatitude of the Middle Path of the
Buddha. They invite us to a reformation of our civilisation that will begin
with reflection on time. They are images of the divinity of man, the barefoot
light on the fountain of our whole Being.
The first cave at Tun-huang
was dug by Yueh-ts'un who was on his way to the
Western Regions. Coming to Tun-huang with his
disciples he was mesmerised by a sparkling river, parasol trees, poplars and
willows, aroma of melons and other fruits, the miraculous waters of the springs
nearby and the irridescence of the peaks of the Sanwei mountains. His disciple who had gone to fetch the
sacred waters did not return and had settled down to dig a cave, paint its
walls and create sculptures in the crushing majesty of the landscape. The air
rustling with invisible presences was now inhabited by mysterious beings in the
metaphysic of murals. The master Yueh-ts'un decided
to create a sangha in the mountain among Singing
Sands and gave up his pilgrimage to the West. It was the consecration of the
endlessly changing aspects of nature as the light of cosmical
consciousness which unfolds spiritual awareness, a spring of dazzling light no
human words can describe. The first cave was opened in AD 366. The name Chien-fo-tung "Thousand Buddha Caves" derives
from the legend that a monk dreamt of a cloud with the Thousand Buddhas above the valley.
The choice of a place for meditation had to be a
site of pure and pleasing water which yields flowers and fruits. Lotus ponds,
parks, divine shrines, waterfalls, caitya halls,
quiet places, and other sites of natural charm are mentioned in the Vairocanabhisambodhi-sutra as appropriate for meditation (Wayman 1992:116, 312). The transparent veil of universal
mystery has to the locus of contemplation wherein unfathomable depths are born
of subtle self-analysis as the embodiment of enlightened meditation. The
surrounds of Tun-huang provided the idyllic and
serene ambience to forget the samsara and sink into meditation. Thus Mo-kao-k'u "Grottoes of
Immeasurable Height", or Chien-
fo-tung "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" became the glittering Sumeru
from the strategic commandery of Tun-huang
"The Blazing Beacon" of the Han period. Its hundreds of caves were
and are a pageant of Buddhist paradises with a sparkling galaxy of divine
images, symbolising metaphysical spheres of inner experiences in a journey
along the spiritual path.
The Avatamsaka sutras are
a collection of thirty nine texts. Individual texts as well as the complete
corpus were translated into Chinese from AD 167 to AD
798. The Tathagat- acintya-guhya-nirdesa
gives the arising of the Thousand Buddhas. It was
translated by Dharmaraksa of Tun-huang
in AD 280. Thus the Avatamsaka was known in Tun-huang
86 years before the first cave was dug. The cult of the Thousand Buddhas must have been popular at Tun-huang,
whence the disciple of Yueh-ts'un saw them in the
clouds as well as Maitreya who is the first future
Buddha in the system of Thousand Buddhas, while Rocana is the last or thousandth. Cleary (1983:9) speaks of
"a pure mind entering into all realms of knowledge, a clearly aware mind
perceiving the adornments of the site of enlightenment". As soon as the
first cave was dug out, its adornment in multiplicity of colours was the first
step. The essence of thusness (tathata) or the pure mind is
"luminous or completely illumined" and inherently pure. Two functions
of this essence are "oceanic reflection" and the complete
illumination of the realm of reality (Cleary 1983:147). The Chinese word hua-yen for Avatamsaka
means "flower ornament". The Avatamsaka
arose and developed in the Bamiyan region and in the Lamkan Valley. The word Lamkan is
the famous city of Ramma or Rammaka
in the Pali texts and Ramyaka
in Sanskrit. Dipankara the Buddha of the Past was
born in the Rammavati metropolis. The last sutra of
the Avatamsaka corpus is called Rarnyaka-sutra
and it was translated into Chinese by Aryasthira in AD 388-407. It is also termed Gandavyuha. Ganda at the beginning of a
compound means 'best, excellent' (MW). So Gandavyuha
means "The Excellent Array, The Outstanding Cosmos", parallel to Sukhavati-vyuha. It connotes the paradise of Rocana whose adjective is Abhyucca-deua or Colossal Deity (see details in Lokesh Chandra 1997: CHI 6.32-51). Rowland 1971:38 says:
"It would be safer to consider the lesser colossus as a work of no earlier
than the year 200". Its inhabitants were of hardy Tokharian
stock (Carter 1986:117). The Tokharians were present
in Xinjiang as early as the second millennium BC. Rowland sees the Larger 175 feet colossus in its painted niche as a universal
AdiBuddha such as Vairocana
(Carter 1986: 121). He is actually Rocana the last of
the Thousand Buddhas of the Avatamsaka.
The motifs and themes of the Ming-oi of Kizil bear
close resemblance to those of Bamiyan. Rowland
1971:42: " ... the resemblance of the various
styles and techniques of the paintings at Bamiyan and
Kakrak to the wall paintings of Kizil and Murtuq demonstrates ... the role of Afghanistan in the
diffusion of influences to Central Asia and the Far East". The natural
surrounds of Tun-huang are paralled
to the Bamiyan river, its chinar
trees, the entire landscape of hills and sprawling plains: "are of the
most dramatic panoramas of Asia" (Rowland 1966:95) Tun-huang
follows the pattern of the Bamiyan cliff honeycombed
with vat complexes of cave chapels, some of them connected by galleries within,
and along the front of the precipice. The disciple of Yueh-ts'un
had a vision of Maitreya whence he sat out to dig the
first cave. The gigantic painting of the Sun God in his chariot on the soffit
of the niche of the Smaller Colossus at the eastern end of Bamiyan
identifies the colossus as Maitreya. Maitreya and Rocana are 'Twin Buddhas' of the Avatamsaka. The Maitreya envisioned by the disciple refers to the Avatarnsaka which was well known by the translation of the irdesa by Dharmaraksa of Tun-huang. Yueh-ts'un and his
disciples could have heard of the natural charm and iconic grandeur of Bamiyan and could have been on their way to Bamiyan. At Tun-huang
they visualised the crucial
iconography of Bamiyan in the radiant clouds reflecting
the Ten Bodhisattvas from the mystic clouds of the Gandavyuha.
They settled down at Tun- huang
to create a veritable paradise of Rocana Buddha in
the transcendent adornment of the caves so that they are the realm of hua-yen "flower ornament"
or as Maitreya says: "they know that all things
are like reflected images, but the Bodhisattvas do not despise any
world"(Cleary 1983:8).
This work describes and contextualises 143 paintings
out of 277 in the National Museum, New Delhi. Some scrolls have faded leaving
faint traces of colour and these have not been included. The art of Tun-huang has been phased in three periods. The first period with a marked influence
of Gandhara cover four dynastie
from AD 397 to 581. The second period span the Sui and Tang dynasties,
from AD 581 to 907 when it attained
its climax of aesthetic excellence, sumptuous paradises, sutras unfolding
various spiritual worlds. The two large Vajrapani
guarding the entrance of cave 427 in the early 7th century were an innovation,
representing Narayana and Mahesvara as guardians.
They came to be known as 'Two Kings' or Ni-6 in Japan, and are colossal
sculptures. The Northern Colossus of Maitreya in cave
96 dated to AD 695 and the Southern
Colossus of Rocana in cave 130 is dated AD 721. The third and last period pertains to the
Five Dynasties, Sung, Hsi-hsia and Yuan, covering
over four centuries from AD 907
to 1368.
The Tibetans ruled Tun-huang
from AD 781 to 847 and they donated
a number of caves with new architectural features, new subjects and new pallete of colours. The 'Emperor of Tibet' is shown in the
paining of cave 158, which is the largest as it has a gigantic figure of Lord
Buddha in nirvana. A little lower than the Tibetan Emperor is the Chinese
Emperor. Large-size royal portraits were an innovation that was followed later
on by their successor rulers of the Ch'ang and Ts'ao families. The Ts'ao family
which came to rule Tun-huang in AD 906 had close marital
relations with Khotan. The Ch'ang
family celebrated the return of Tun-huang to the
Chinese by the heroic victory of Ch'ang I-ch'ao. They sanctified his hallowed memory by huge
portraits in cave 98. The King of Khotan and the Uigur Queen too are depicted in larger than life portraits.
The donor figures increased, in contrast to the earlier caves where no regal
representations are seen. Tun-huang was the diaspora of the Khotanese
royalty, nobility, monks and others escaping from the genocide and scorched
earth aggression of Islamic Kashgar. Tun-huang survived these ravages of religious fanaticism
and it is celebrated in Chinese poems written on the walls of the caves.
The Tiger Monk has eluded identification as an
individual. He represents a generic type
of monks who were experts in
the martial arts and escorted itinerant bhiksus
across long distances. The warrior-trained monks were to guard the holy relics,
the treasures of shrines, and teachers of Dharma from robbers (Tomio 1994: 194). Combatant monks are mentioned in the Sarvastivada-Vinaya (T24), Ekottaragama
(T2), and Udanavarga (T4). The Asokavadana
translated by Fa Ch'uan in AD 300 lists 32 sacred places
at which Asoka built a stupa. These include the hall
at which young Siddhartha studied the martial arts.
The mudras in the Tun-huang paintings and murals need to be studied in
detail. Though in keeping with the traditional iconography, at times they
represent regional variants or more sophisticated versions of the classical
gestures. For example, Waley says that the Buddha in
Stein 518 has the right hand in vitarka-rnudra near
the chest and the left lies horizontal below it. It is a painting of Lord
Buddha granting fearlessness from evil and the gesture of argumentation (vitarka) does not accord with its function. We have identified it as the abhaya-mudra in kataka with the elegant
rondure Gzasalea 'ring') of the hands. The
left is in the dhyana-mudra, The abhaya
and varada-mudras of Lord Buddha had been identified
as vitarka by Waley due to
their nexus with the annularity of the kataka. The mudras have been re-interpreted to accord with their ritual
function.
The mudra of the Sun-Moon Avalokitesvara
is for granting refuge: it is the sarana-mudra. It
has been identified anew from the mudra of Tara and Avalokitesvara
in their role as protectors from the 'eight great perils' Casta- mahabhaya-trdna) .
We have spent glorious years on these scrolls of Tun-huang in their supernal appearances as a direct
experience of a cosmic consciousness whose radiance fills centuries of Sino-
Indian visions that sway, surge, throb, and hold rhythms of their own in the
boundless wonder of impermanence. They are the wisdom that transcend? delusions, and the boundless mind that endures beyond the
ups and downs of life's flow. From the visual domain they are the way to finer,
subtler spheres of the arupa,
an ascent from
the world of space and time to the timeless omnipresence.
Contents
Preface |
7 |
TUN-HUANG
OVER THE CENTURIES |
|
Terror
of the terrain and quest of the beyond |
13 |
The
deep sands and imperial dreams |
13 |
Permanent
Chinese settlement in the Kansu Corridor |
15 |
Yueh-chih introduced Buddhist Sutras |
16 |
Yueh-chih Dharmaraksa (AD 230-308, active in
268-308) as the first great translator |
17 |
The
Sutra Route |
19 |
Khotan as a source of jade and sutras |
19 |
Tun-huang in a Niya document of AD 269 |
20 |
TUN
-HUAG: GALAXY OF DIVINE IMAGES |
|
Yueh-ts'un's disciple excavates the first cave in AD 366 |
21 |
Avatamsaka and Tun-huang |
22 |
Radiant
memories in folk legends |
22 |
Five-colour
Maiden |
23 |
Drops
of amrta tipped off by Avalokitesvara
in the river near Tun-huang |
24 |
First
period of the caves (AD 397-581) |
24 |
Early
Caves |
25 |
Northern
Wei (AD 439-534) |
25 |
Sung-yun of Tun-huang |
26 |
Western
Wei (AD 535-556) |
26 |
Northern
Chou (AD 557-581) |
27 |
Second
period of the caves (AD 581-907) |
28 |
Sui
Dynasty (AD 581-618) |
29 |
Early
Tang (AD 618-704) |
31 |
The
Northern and Southern Colossi |
33 |
Tun-huang as a strategic centre (AD 705-780) |
34 |
Flourishing
Tang (AD 705-780) |
34 |
Middle
Tang when Tibetans rule Tun-huang from AD 781 to 847 |
35 |
Late
Tang (AD 848-907) |
38 |
Third
period of the caves (AD 907-1368) |
39 |
Tun-huang as the diaspora of Khotan
after its Islamisation |
40 |
Tiger
Monk |
42 |
Jade beauties
to flying devis |
45 |
Thousand
Buddhas |
48 |
TUN-HUANG PAINTINGS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM |
|
Lord
Buddha (ill. 1-10) |
51 |
Famous
Buddhist images (ill. 11) |
62 |
Amitabha: Buddha
of Infinite Light (ill. 12-21) |
82 |
Bhaisajyaguru: the Buddha of Healing (ill. 22) |
99 |
Maitreya Bodhisattva (ill. 23) |
106 |
Avalokitesvara: the Supernal Compassion (ill. 24-35) |
108 |
Eleven-headed
Avalokitesvara (ill. 37-44) |
126 |
Thousand-armed
Avalokitesvara: Kinesis of the Measureless (ill. 45-51) |
138 |
Sun-Moon
Avalokitesvara (ill. 52-55) |
161 |
Tiger
Monk |
161 |
Manjusri (ill. 57-59) |
170 |
Ksitigarbha (ill. 60-63) |
174 |
Five
Transcendental Bodhisattvas (ill. 64-68) |
182 |
Votive
Bodhisattvas (ill. 69-130) |
190 |
The
Four Lokapalas (ill. 131-140) |
242 |
Vajrapani Dharmapala (ill.
141-142) |
256 |
Seven
Treasures of the State (ill. 143) |
258 |
LITERATURE
CITED |
259 |
CHRONOLOGICAL
FOOTHOLDS |
264 |
CHINESE
DYNASTIES |
267 |
CONCORDANCE
OF CH., STEIN, NATIONAL MUSEUM AND BOOK NUNBERS |
268 |
INDEX |
275 |