Chapter IV (1)

It has been mentioned that a series of Nepalese paintings of Bodhisattvas were found at Tun-huang. These are precious documents, because of the extreme rarity of Indian paintings of so early a period; but as their artistic interest is but slight, they have not been chosen for illustration. Plate XXXI reproduces a Tibetan painting. The territory of Tun-huang was conquered by the Tibetans in the middle of the eighth century A.D., and till the middle of the ninth century the Tibetan power was dominant. Quantities of Tibetan Buddhist writings were found in the cave: and among the paintings this one, certainly, is entirely Tibetan in style. (Two Tibetan drawings are reproduced on Pl. XXXII.) It is of the same type as the numerous pictures brought from Tibet itself in recent years, collections of which are in the British Museum, and in other museums of Europe and America. With regard to these pictures the question of date has always been a matter of conjecture. Many are darkened by incense-smoke, which in a few years can give an appearance of impressive antiquity. The probability is that the Tun-huang specimen dates from about the tenth century, and, if so, it is likely to be the oldest of its kind now in existence, or at the least one of the oldest. It is painted in distemper on linen, a technique favoured by the Tibetan artists.

But how did this Tibetan art grow up? What is the indigenous element in it? Buddhism was only introduced into the country in the seventh century, and whether Tibet had any art to speak of before its introduction we do not know. In Tibetan Buddhism the Tantra system of magic and witchcraft, and the worship of demons (supposed to be converted by Buddha and to be vassals under his sovereignty), play a dominant part; and in the paintings the forms are often monstrous and horrible, the colouring sombrely splendid. But the harmonies of fluid, sinuous line, for which they are even more remarkable, seem to be an element borrowed from Chinese art and carried to excess in Tibet. If we compare for a moment this painting with, for instance, the one reproduced on Plate XLII, we see how much this element counts for. And on the whole it seems likeliest to suppose that Tibetan painting is rather an offshoot of Chinese art, developed in a certain direction, and so acquiring a special character, than a native growth. But of this we cannot be certain.

Plate XLII illustrates, much reduced, an imposing example of the kind of painting in a mixed style which flourished in Eastern Turkestān. Note how the flowers dropping through the air suggest none of that sense of the fragility of flowers, and of their light floating on the air, which the Chinese artist knows instinctively how to give: they are heavy and motionless. There is a certain rigidity and solidity in the whole picture; and the effect of solidity is consciously aimed at by the system of modelling the central figure in two tones of colour. This system is carried yet further in Plate X, where high lights on nose and forehead (blackened through oxidization in some places) have been added in white. Compare also Plate XI, illustrating a very large painting of similar character, full of the most interesting detail (note the babies enclosed within the lotus-buds, souls of the blessed about to be born into Paradise). These pictures are painted in what Sir Aurel Stein calls ‘the fresco style’, because they repeat on silk the manner of the fresco paintings of Tun-huang. In all these pictures the Chinese element is present but not dominant; and the system of modelling in two tones of colour comes, we cannot doubt, from the west. It is true that it was sometimes copied by the Chinese in their Buddhist paintings, as we know from early Japanese examples following Chinese prototypes: but the Chinese of T‘ang times were intensely interested in the western countries; they liked to introduce figures of people from those regions into their pictures; and, as we know, a painter from Khotan settled in China in the eighth century and had great success there. But the desire to suggest mass and roundness by means of modelling in painting was against the instincts of the Chinese and Japanese; it occurs only in certain Buddhist pictures, the survival of a borrowing from the west preserved by hieratic tradition.

One of the finest of all the Tun-huang pictures is not a painting but a piece of embroidery. Unfortunately it does not lend itself well to photography in colour; and its quality and impressive character are merely suggested in the small Plate (Pl. XXXIV) and in the detail with a group of donors (Pl. XXXV). Though merely the reproduction by craftsmen of a master’s work, it shows such skill and taste in execution, it is so fine in colour, and so well preserved, that it must be ranked with the very finest of the paintings as an indication of the grandeur of the Buddhist art of T‘ang.

[1] For the wall-paintings and sculptures of the cave-temples of Tun-huang, see now the fine reproductions in M. Paul Pelliot’s _Les Grottes de Touen-houang, Peintures et Sculptures des époques des Wei, des T‘ang et des Song_ (Paris, Paul Geuthner, in progress).

DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF PICTURES FROM THE CAVES OF THE THOUSAND BUDDHAS AT TUN-HUANG

BY

AUREL STEIN

PLATES I, II

THE PARADISE OF BHAIṢAJYAGURU

The first two plates reproduce portions, on half the scale of the original, from the right and left of a large painting on silk (Ch. lii. 003), remarkable for its noble design, the delicacy of its drawing, and its glowing colours. In spite of the damage it has suffered along its sides and bottom (see _Serindia_, Pl. LVII) it still measures close on seven feet in height and over five and a half feet across. It represents a Buddhist Paradise and, according to M. Petrucci’s interpretation, the one presided over by Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Buddha of Medicine, whose cult since an early period has been widespread in Northern Buddhism from Tibet to Japan. His Heaven is placed in the East by sacred texts preserved in the Chinese Tripiṭaka. In their descriptions as well as in our painting Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise shares the essential features of that still more popular abode of Buddhist bliss, the Western Paradise, or _Sukhāvatī_, presided over by the Buddha Amitābha. Of this the ‘Caves of the Thousand Buddhas’ have preserved numerous representations both among the pictures recovered from the walled-up chapel (see Pls. VI–VIII, X–XI) and among the mural paintings decorating the temples. But the legendary scenes occupying the side panels of our painting and connected with Bhaiṣajyaguru are different, and so are also certain details in the arrangement and personnel of the main subject. These distinctive features are found again in another somewhat less elaborate picture of Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise, reproduced in Plate XXXVI.

His Heaven presents itself in our picture, as in all the large Paradise paintings of Tun-huang, as a great assemblage of celestial beings, elaborately staged on richly decorated terraces and courts which rise above a lotus lake. On the sides and behind the terraces there are seen pavilions and elaborate structures of characteristically Chinese style, representing the heavenly mansions. It is in this sumptuous setting that Chinese Buddhism has visualized from an early period the idea of a Paradise where the souls of believers in the Law may be reborn, free from all taint, in the buds of the lotus lake to enjoy thereafter for aeons, or in popular belief for ever, blissful rest and pleasures in the company of Bodhisattvas, Arhats, and other beatified personalities. The scheme of the whole, as in all representations of Buddhist Heavens among the Tun-huang paintings, is ordered on the strictly symmetrical lines of a ‘Maṇḍala’, buildings, trees, groups, and even individual figures balancing each other on either side of the picture and all centring round the presiding Buddha in the middle.

Here we see Bhaiṣajyaguru seated with folded legs and wearing a crimson mantle over a green under-robe. While his right hand is raised as usual in the _vitarka-mudrā_, the left holds the begging bowl in his lap. Behind him a couple of flowering trees support a hexagonal canopy of red drapery. A halo and nimbus of manifold but harmoniously blended colours surround the Buddha’s figure, which in pose and dress and in the features of the mild pensive face bears the impress of the type first evolved in Graeco-Buddhist art even more clearly than the figures of the surrounding Bodhisattvas. Of these the two enthroned are identified by M. Petrucci with Mañjuśrī on the right and Samantabhadra on the left. Above these two chief Bodhisattvas rise six-tiered umbrellas wreathed in clouds, about which float gracefully poised figures of Apsaras. The rich flowing garments, which include shawl-like stoles, and the abundant jewelled ornaments of the two are shared also by other haloed figures obviously meant for Bodhisattvas, who appear in attendance on the central Buddha or in varying supple poses occupy the fore portion of the terrace. The features of all are drawn with extreme delicacy and pleasing variety of expression, the eyes being in many cases almost straight, while the flesh is white, with shading in tints of pink.

By the side of either of the enthroned Bodhisattvas there is seen a composite group of divinities, unhaloed and five on each side, of types not ordinarily met with among the attendants in these Paradise pictures. Three figures in each group are warrior kings, recalling the Lokapālas, or Guardians of the Four Regions (see Pls. XLV, XLVII), by their gorgeous armour and head-dresses. The features of most of them are grotesque, and this aspect of their appearance is enhanced by the animal figures, including a dragon, gryphon, phoenix, and peacock, which are shown rising above their shoulders or elsewhere in conjunction with them. Each group includes the figure of a demon closely resembling those which are usually met with in the _cortège_ of Lokapālas (see Pls. XXVI, XLV). The demon on the right raises a naked infant on his hand, just as the demon in the fragmentary painting of Plate XLVI. Immediately behind the enthroned Buddha on the left is seen a youthful personage wearing what looks like a magistrate’s head-dress, while the corresponding position on the right is occupied by a warrior with three faces. Perhaps he represents Brahman and the former divinity Indra.

Before the central Buddha and in the middle of the picture is seen a large platform projecting from the main terrace and carrying a draped altar with sacred vessels. On either side of it kneel two unhaloed figures in graceful poses holding up offerings and suggesting nymphs. Projecting still further into the foreground is a smaller platform, and on it a dancer performs in rapid movement to the strains of an orchestra of eight seated musicians. The dancing figure, unmistakably that of a girl, is dressed in a billowy orange skirt tied round the hips and a close-fitting crimson jacket reaching only to the waist and surmounted by a metal-bound plastron. Her head and arms are richly adorned with jewellery. From behind the neck issues a long narrow stole which her hands wave as she dances. The figures of the musicians, four on each side, resemble those of Bodhisattvas in features and dress, but the shawl-like stoles over the shoulders are absent. Those to the left play on a harp, two lutes, and a psaltery, while those to the right play on clappers, flute, Chinese reed-organ, and pipe. The instruments, of which several have their ancient Japanese counterparts among the treasures of the Shōsōin collection (see _Shōsōin Catalogue_, i. Pls. 56, 60), have been fully described in Miss Schlesinger’s expert notes in Appendix _K_ to _Serindia_.

At the head of each line of musicians there is seen in the background a small but very curious figure, that of a fat half-naked infant violently dancing and playing, the one to the left on a narrow-waisted drum, the one to the right apparently on castanets. Judging from other Paradise pictures we may assume that these playing infants represent newly reborn souls who in the joy of their celestial childhood have been drawn to join the happy scene of music and dancing.

A kind of gangway projects in front of the dancer’s platform into the lotus lake, and at its entrance stands a Garuḍa with widespread wings, playing on cymbals. From the lake rise trees and purple or scarlet lotus buds and flowers, the latter supporting souls reborn. Two of these, at the extreme right and left, are sitting upright as fully developed Bodhisattvas, but with a languid air of newly awakened consciousness. Two others, faintly visible in the foreground, are represented as naked infants just springing to life or still curled up in sleep. A rock on the left at the bottom edge of the lake is occupied by a crane; its pendant on the right, a peacock, falls outside the reproduction in Plate II.

The bottom corners of the Paradise are filled by the twelve armed Kings, the generals of Bhaiṣajyaguru, who act as protectors of the Law. They kneel six a side upon small terraces with gangways sloping down into the lake. They are treated in appearance and dress like Lokapālas, but carry no distinctive weapons. Their hands are joined in adoration or else hold sacred vessels, jewels, &c.

Turning to the sides of the picture, we see the main terrace flanked by two-storied pavilions, both of distinctively Chinese architecture, and close by them trees carrying rich foliage but no flowers. The upper chambers of the pavilions are open and show small Bodhisattvas sitting on railings, pulling up reed-blinds or otherwise enjoying their leisured life. The lower chambers contain only unoccupied lotus seats and appear to have just been abandoned by two subsidiary Buddhas, who are represented as advancing, each with two attendant Bodhisattvas, on to projecting wings of the main terrace. The dress of the subsidiary Buddhas is exactly that of the presiding Bhaiṣajyaguru, of whom M. Petrucci takes them to be repetitions, and the expression of their faces is similarly mild and pensive.

The marginal scenes, of which Plate I shows the better preserved ones on the right side, have been identified by M. Petrucci as representing incidents of the legend of Bhaiṣajyaguru’s last incarnation as a Bodhisattva. Without reference to the text of the Chinese Tripiṭaka which records this legend, but of which the translation prepared by M. Petrucci is not at present accessible, no interpretation of the different scenes can be attempted here. Judging from the inscribed cartouches, at least five scenes are represented in the predella portion actually reproduced in our Plate. That the treatment of the figures, the dresses, the landscape is in purely Chinese style is an observation uniformly applying to all side scenes to be found in ‘Maṇḍala’ pictures from the ‘Thousand Buddhas’, as well as to the banners representing episodes from Gautama Buddha’s life-story (see Pls. XII, XIII, XXXVII). Mr. Binyon in his Introductory Essay (see above, p. 7) has discussed different possible explanations of the striking assertion of Chinese style and feeling in these scenes. Here it may suffice to draw attention to the skill with which the rapid movement of the animal figures appearing in our scenes is rendered, and to the clever use, observed elsewhere also, which is made of hill ranges and similar landscape features for dividing the several scenes into clearly marked compartments without sacrificing the effect of the whole as a connected story.

A combination of special qualities renders this painting of Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise one of the most impressive pictures in the Collection and proves it to be from the hand of a master. As Mr. Binyon happily puts it, we see in it ‘delicate expressiveness of drawing combined with a glowing animation of varied colour.... The artist has been able to control his complex material and multitude of forms into a wonderful harmony, without any restlessness or confusion; and we are taken into an atmosphere of strange peace which yet seems filled with buoyant motion and floating strains of music.’

PLATE III

A CELESTIAL ASSEMBLAGE

The observations just quoted apply with equal force to the large painting on silk (Ch. xxxvii. 004), of which Plate III reproduces a little more than the left-hand half on the scale of about one-half. The painting itself, which though incomplete on all sides still measures close on six feet across by five feet in height, represents but the upper portion of a much larger composition. Judging from what survives of the central figure in the lower broken part (see _Serindia_, Pl. LIX), the picture as a whole was meant for a ‘Maṇḍala’ of the thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara, the Kuan-yin of Chinese Buddhism. But the heavy band of rhomboidal ornament which, as seen near the lower edge of the Plate, passes behind the halo of this large central figure clearly marks off the divine assemblage in the upper portion from the rest as a well-defined theme by itself.

The Buddha presiding over this assemblage, whose seated figure our Plate shows in its upper right corner, is taken by M. Petrucci for Bhaiṣajyaguru, and the similarity in pose and accessories to the central Buddha of the previously discussed picture seems to support this identification. Unfortunately the inscription in Chinese and Tibetan which occupies the large yellow cartouche in the centre and might have afforded safe guidance has faded into illegibility. On either side of this central Buddha is seen a Bodhisattva, seated with one leg pendent and with the hand nearest to the Buddha raised, like the right of the latter himself, in the _vitarka-mudrā_, the gesture of argument. In pose, dress, and treatment of features these two seated Bodhisattvas bear a distinctly Indian air, and this would well agree with the identification proposed for them by M. Petrucci, who on the strength of inscriptional indications in a simplified Maṇḍala of Bhaiṣajyaguru is prepared to recognize Samantabhadra in the Bodhisattva to the left and his usual counterpart Mañjuśrī in the corresponding seated Bodhisattva to the right.[1] Between the presiding Buddha and the Bodhisattva on either side are grouped three lesser Bodhisattvas in adoring poses and two haloed monkish disciples. The heads of the latter, one young, the other old and emaciated, are drawn with much expressive skill. The same is the case with the faces of most of the Bodhisattvas, though the great difficulties which the painting offers to photography do not allow the extreme delicacy of the drawing to be fully appreciated in the reproduction.

While the grouping and treatment of the divine personalities so far named follow well-established lines, a striking feature, met with again only once among our ‘Maṇḍala’ paintings, is introduced by the two processions which descend, carried on purple clouds, from either side towards the centre of the picture. On the left our Plate shows us the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra seated on a lotus which a white elephant, his recognized _vāhana_, carries, as he advances accompanied by Bodhisattvas and preceded by heavenly musicians to meet Mañjuśrī. The latter Bodhisattva appears in the corresponding right-hand portion of the picture seated on his lion and escorted by an exactly similar _cortège_.

Apart from six figures of undetermined lesser Bodhisattvas, some of whom carry sacred vessels, the _cortège_ of either comprises four youthful musicians playing on clappers, pipe, flute, and mouth-organ. In front of them marches a dark-coloured boy, undoubtedly meant for an Indian, carrying a bronze vessel, while another strides by the side of the chief Bodhisattva, leading his mount. The exaggerated dark colour of these Indians is, like the misdrawing of the elephant’s head and limbs, significant of the painter’s want of familiarity with things Indian. In the background two of the Lokapālas, or Guardian-kings of the Four Quarters, attend the train of each divinity. About the fluttering canopy which rises above the head of each float gracefully drawn Gandharvīs (Apsaras). From the side there sweeps down a bevy of tiny Bodhisattva figures clustered within a wreath of purple cloud, while above it a group of picturesque hills, drawn with true Chinese feeling for landscape, fills the top corner.

Throughout the picture the workmanship is that of a master, and the serene dignity of the composition as a whole is very happily blended with tenderness of mood and harmonious subtlety of line and colour.

PLATES IV, V

PROCESSIONS OF MAÑJUŚRĪ AND SAMANTABHADRA

Closely allied in subject and treatment to the last described picture, though not quite equal to it in quality of execution, are the two grand fragments (Ch. xxxvii. 003, 005) partially illustrated by Plates IV and V. These two large pieces of silk with curved tops once belonged respectively to the right and left sides of one arch-shaped picture. The centre portion, which is likely to have contained a seated Buddha, is lost. But some idea of the size of the whole may be formed from the fact that the surviving right side portion (Ch. xxxvii. 003, Pl. IV) in its broken state still measures six and a half feet in height with a width of about three and a half feet, while the dimensions of the badly broken left side are even larger. The shape of the picture suggests that it was originally intended to occupy the back of a vaulted chapel recess or of the aisle of an antechapel.

The right portion reproduced in Plate IV (scale one-fourth of original) shows us Mañjuśrī, mounted on his white lion, advancing towards the centre, surrounded by a host of attendant Bodhisattvas, Lokapālas, demons, and nymphs. His mount is led by an Indian attendant and preceded by a pair of musicians. The whole procession is carried on a purple cloud.

The figure of Mañjuśrī is seated in the same attitude as that of Samantabhadra in Plate III, with one leg pendent, but with his right hand held out palm uppermost. The features of his pale-complexioned face with its peaceful expression are very delicately rendered. But the Indian model from which they are derived is reflected still more clearly in the richly draped garments of the Bodhisattva and the forms of his abundant jewelled ornaments. They are plainly borrowed in all details from Graeco-Buddhist art transplanted into Central Asia. The elaborate halo of Mañjuśrī deserves mention for its harmonious colouring and flame border.

By the side of the attendant Bodhisattvas, all showing peaceful features, we note Lokapālas with their demon followers. Of the former Virūḍhaka, Guardian-king of the South, is recognizable by his club. The demons are characterized by grotesque features and colouring of deep red. The attendant divinity seen walking in the lower right corner awaits identification. He wears the dress of a Chinese dignitary (high-waisted flowery under-robe and wide-sleeved jacket), while coiffure and nimbus are those of a Bodhisattva. He carries a fan and is attended by two nymphs; of the one on the right only the head survives in the extant fragment. The leader of the lion has a skin of chocolate-brown colour and coarse features, suggesting a negro type.

Of the figures of the musicians walking in front but little is preserved on the right side of the picture. But the corresponding pair on the left side, which Plate V reproduces on a scale of approximately one-half of the original, has suffered less damage and allows us to enjoy both the spirited design and the great delicacy of drawing in these figures. They march with uplifted heads, playing on whistle-pipe and mouth-organ. In the face of the flute-player on the left delighted absorption in the music is admirably expressed, while the curving lines of the body and the floating loose garments convey a sense of rhythmic motion in complete harmony with the subject. Equally expressive is the drawing in the face of the musician to the right, with its look of intent concentration. The larger scale of reproduction allows us to see here the method of shading used by the painter in the treatment of the flesh. The delicate colouring of the faces is well set off by the stronger but harmoniously blended tints of the large globe-shaped tassel which appears between them, hanging from the harness of Samantabhadra’s elephant. In the same way the strong black of their hair and the dark brown of the Mahout’s figure, partially seen on the left edge of Plate V, help to give strength to the colour scheme, in which light greens and reds prevail.

PLATE VI

DETAILS FROM A PAINTING OF A BUDDHIST HEAVEN

Here we see the left-hand bottom portion of a Paradise picture reproduced on the scale of two-thirds, but without the gay colours of the original (Ch. liv. 004). This represents a Buddhist Heaven presided over by a Buddha whom M. Petrucci takes to be Śākyamuni.[2] In certain characteristic features of the main theme, as well as in the side scenes, our painting agrees closely with the Paradise picture (Ch. xxxviii. 004), of which Plate VII shows a complete reproduction. To the latter, therefore, reference may be made as regards the general arrangement of the celestial scene with its central Buddha flanked by two principal Bodhisattvas, &c., and that of the marginal scenes, which in both paintings tell the story of Kalyāṇaṃkara and Pāpaṃkara, as contained in texts of the Chinese Tripiṭaka.

The portion of the painting actually shown in our Plate represents at the top the attendant host of Bodhisattvas, seated or kneeling by the side of the altar which occupies a central position on the terrace. A projecting part of this terrace serves as platform for the performance of the celestial dancer and carries at either front corner the figure of a Garuḍa playing on a musical instrument, apparently pipe and clappers. The whole of the terrace is clearly shown as of wooden construction and as raised on sloping piles above the waters of the lotus lake. An unusual feature is the grouping of the divine musicians on two separate terraces in the bottom corners. They are six on each side and play on harp, lute, syrinx and Chinese mouth-organ, whistle-pipe, and clappers. Behind the musicians are trees with pear-shaped leaves and groups of conventional pink and white flowers. From the lake rise reborn souls in the shape of infants carried on open lotuses. The face and gesture of the one seen on the left below the railing of the main terrace admirably express the awakening consciousness of the newly born soul.

Throughout the picture the workmanship is highly finished, and the delicacy of the drawing, especially in the features of the Bodhisattvas, deserves notice. The prevailing colours are, as usual, shades of crimson and dull green; but these are enlivened by the white of the flesh of all divine figures and the orange, pale blue, and purple used on stoles and haloes.

The legendary scenes on the sides which M. Chavannes first identified from the cartouches, here fortunately bearing Chinese inscriptions,[3] display throughout purely Chinese style in the dress and attitudes of figures, &c. The figure of the kneeling lady in the left bottom compartment is the portrait of a donatrix and may claim special interest. Her costume and coiffure agree closely with those of the donatrices in two paintings bearing exact dates of the second half of the ninth century A.D.,[4] while they show a marked difference from the far more elaborate fashion displayed by the ladies who appear in our numerous dated pictures of the tenth century. I have had occasion to call attention elsewhere to the very helpful _indicia_ which changing fashions in the dress and coiffure of donatrices, and to a lesser extent in those of donor figures also, supply for the chronology of the Ch‘ien-fo-tung pictures.[5]

PLATE VII

THE PARADISE OF ŚĀKYAMUNI

This painting (Ch. xxxviii. 004), reproduced here on the scale of two-sevenths, is practically complete and in a very fair state of preservation, still retaining its border of yellowish-green silk. As already mentioned in the description of the preceding Plate, it represents the Paradise of a Buddha in whom M. Petrucci recognizes Śākyamuni, the historical Buddha.[6] The ordinance of the celestial assemblage is simple, though showing some peculiar features. The presiding Buddha, with legs interlocked and both hands in the _vitarka-mudrā_, occupies a lotus seat in the centre and faces the draped altar. By him we see seated two principal Bodhisattvas, alike in appearance and dress but with hands in different poses. According to M. Petrucci’s view based on the inscriptions of a much-reduced presentation of the same Paradise (Ch. xxxiii. 001), we may identify the Bodhisattva on the left with Ākāśagarbha and the one on the right with Kṣitigarbha. Between them and the Buddha is shown on each side a small shaven disciple, of childlike appearance with hands in adoration. Above the heads of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas are seen canopies carried by pairs of trees and encircled by big flowers, and behind them appears the pavilion with boldly upturned eaves which represents the celestial mansion, the habitation of blessed souls. In the air above and carried on clouds float the small figures of four Buddhas amidst a sprinkling of orange flowers.

On the main terrace in front of the triad we see a dancer performing in spirited movement. Its rhythmic rapidity is happily conveyed by the graceful scroll-lines of the scarf she waves freely in her hands. On either side four Bodhisattvas occupy lotus seats with hands folded in adoration. Pairs of musicians sit in front of them, playing on a reed-organ, lute, psaltery, and clappers. Gangways lead down from the terrace to the lotus lake. Its bottom corners are occupied by Garuḍa figures, half human half bird, standing on rocks and displaying plumy semi-floral tails, with hands folded in adoration.

Most of the foreground is filled by a large isolated terrace carrying in the centre a subsidiary Buddha, an arrangement which is peculiar. On his right is seated a small Bodhisattva adoring, while to his left the corresponding place is taken by a haloed disciple with shaven head and hands in the same pose. He wears monkish robes with the addition of a necklace, and thus presents the appearance peculiar in our paintings to Kṣitigarbha, as seen in Plates XXV, XXXIX, XL. This distinctly supports the view of M. Petrucci, who takes the group below for a repetition of the principal triad and accordingly identifies the Bodhisattva to the left with Ākāśagarbha and the Buddha with Śākyamuni. The appearance of the Buddha is very unusual; for the crimson robe lined with white, which covers him closely to the neck, shows the red disc of the Sun painted on the left shoulder, the white disc of the Moon (with the tree of immortality) on the right shoulder, and Mount Meru on the front of the body, flanked by a man’s figure on either side.[7]

The marginal scenes of the painting, eleven in all, are taken, as mentioned above, from the legend of Kalyāṇaṃkara and Pāpaṃkara. Their detailed interpretations were to have been furnished in the volume which M. Chavannes was preparing on a selection of our paintings for publication in the _Mémoires concernant l’Asie orientale_ with the help of materials left behind by M. Petrucci.[8] In the absence of such guidance it must suffice here to point out the purely Chinese style of all details in these scenes, including the curving hill ranges and pine-clad cliffs which serve to separate them.

A broad band resembling a tessellated pavement divides the main picture and side scenes from a panel below, which shows the donors kneeling on either side of what was the space left for a dedicatory inscription completely effaced or, perhaps, never written. On the right kneels a row of six men wearing loose belted coats of different colours, while on the left we see in front a bald-headed aged figure which may be meant either for a monk or a nun; behind it a lady alone, and in the third rank three others of more youthful appearance. Behind these again are three boys with their hair done in round tufts above the temples.

Here, too, the costumes are of interest as affording indications as to the approximate date of the painting. Among the men’s we may note that, whereas three wear black hats with wide side-flaps such as are found regularly on the heads of donors in our tenth-century pictures, the other three wear the black lobed and tailed caps which are common in the side scenes and the banners representing legendary incidents of Gautama Buddha’s life (see Pls. XII, XIII, XXXVII). Of the costumes in these representations I have, as I believe, shown that they go back to a period distinctly earlier than the bulk of our pictures from the ‘Thousand Buddhas’.[9] The chronological observation regarding our painting (Ch. xxxviii. 004) is borne out still more clearly by the fashion which the donatrices display. The elaborate head-dress worn by the ladies in all tenth-century pictures is conspicuously absent, and the hair is done plain in a flat round topknot or in a large backward-waving crest just as in the donatrix figures of the picture dated A.D. 864 and reproduced in Plate XVI.

Good and refined as the drawing is, especially in the faces and hands of Bodhisattvas and donatrices, we meet elsewhere with details which have not been highly finished. As in other paintings of this class, the prevailing colour is crimson on dull light green, with orange on the Bodhisattvas’ robes and the tiles of the terrace, turquoise blue on the altar-cloth, &c.

PLATE VIII

AMITĀBHA’S PARADISE

The painting (Ch. lviii. 0011), which this Plate reproduces on the scale of two-fifths, is a good specimen of a fairly numerous group of pictures which represent Amitābha’s ‘Western Paradise’, or _Sukhāvatī_, as it is named in Sanskrit. It has lost the side scenes and its extreme top and bottom, but is otherwise well preserved. Though not as large as some representations of this, the most popular of Buddhist Heavens, nor quite as sumptuous in its pageantry, our painting yet well illustrates all the typical features of the series. The uniformity with which the general scheme is observed in these Sukhāvatī pictures of our Collection, more than a dozen in all, points to prolonged evolution before even the oldest of them was painted.

On the principal terrace we see the presiding Buddha, Amitābha, seated with his hand raised in the _vitarha-mudrā_. The Bodhisattvas seated on both sides, Avalokiteśvara to the right and Mahāsthāma to the left, make up the triad typical of Amitābha’s Paradise as determined by inscribed representations and familiar from an early period also to Buddhism in Japan. Between them and in front, by the side of the altar, appears seated a host of lesser Bodhisattvas. The altar carries vessels with offerings and is draped with a valance decorated with triangular tabs and streamers; it is of interest as exactly corresponding to the large silk valances I recovered from the walled-up chapel.[10] In the background above, partly screened by the elaborate canopies of the triad, are seen the celestial mansions in the shape of pavilions and towers of purely Chinese style.

A portion of the terrace projecting in front of the altar is occupied by a dancer and six musicians, to whose strains she performs. Here, too, the dancer’s rhythmic movement is emphasized by the sinuous lines of the stole which she waves in her hands and by bands fluttering upwards from her head-dress. Mouth-organ, clappers, psaltery, flute, and two differently shaped lutes are the musical instruments played on. At the foot of the gangway descending to the water of the lotus lake is shown a figure suggesting a seated Bodhisattva as seen from the back. The lotus seat and the curling drapery of a stole are clearly recognizable. The bent arms seem to support some offering, perhaps like an Indian ‘Dālī’, as traces of red flowers and of leaves can be made out in the original.

Lotus flowers and rocks appear rising above the water. In the centre of the foreground is a black-tiled platform, on which are assembled a Garuḍa, peacock, crane, and some smaller bird resembling a duck but partly effaced. On either side of this platform there rises from the water a terrace bearing a subsidiary representation of Amitābha’s triad. The pose of the Buddha is the same as in the main group above, but both the Bodhisattvas by his side are here shown with hands joined in adoration. This repetition of the divine triad in the bottom corners is very frequent in the pictures of Amitābha’s Paradise. The representation of a newly born soul seated on a lotus and floating up the gangway which leads to each of these subsidiary groups is a pleasing addition to this conventional arrangement.

The workmanship of the painting is throughout careful and well finished. From a background of dull green crimson, orange-yellow and white stand out as the prevailing colours. The last is largely used on the decorated haloes and ‘Padmāsanas’, or lotus seats, as well as for the flesh of all attendant figures. The absence of black and blue is marked in the general colour scheme.

PLATE IX

LEGENDARY SCENES FROM A PAINTING OF MAITREYA’S PARADISE

The scenes reproduced here, on half the scale of the original, are taken from the top and bottom portions of a large and well-preserved silk painting (Ch. lviii. 001) of Maitreya’s Paradise. For a reproduction of the whole picture and for its special points of iconographic interest, as the only representation in our Collection of that famous Tuṣita Heaven in which the future Buddha of the present world period is supposed to reside, a reference to _Serindia_ must suffice here.[11] The Chinese inscriptions which render the attribution of this Paradise to Maitreya certain (even though the Bodhisattva appears in it as a Buddha, a status which he is yet to attain) are taken from the text of the _Maitreya-vyākaraṇa-sūtra_ and accompany legendary scenes shown in the top corners and along the bottom of the painting. These scenes, as seen in our Plate, are not formally separated from the Paradise proper, but merge into it at the bottom and are above only divided from it by a range of pine-clad mountains.

The inscriptions and the legendary scenes to which they refer were to have been interpreted in MM. Petrucci and Chavannes’ separate volume in the _Mémoires concernant l’Asie orientale_.[12] The materials prepared for it by those lamented collaborators are not at present accessible to me, and in the absence of textual guidance the descriptive notes on the scenes must here be brief. In the scene above on the right we see three men in Chinese magisterial costume seated along a table on a terrace, while before them two men stand right and left of a large disc, provided with a tripod (?) and suggesting a metal mirror into which a third smaller figure appears to gaze. To the left, between two inscribed cartouches, are shown three men seated behind a table, the centre one being on a lotus seat. Their head-dress is the same black hat with broad flaps sticking out sideways which is worn by the three seated figures to the right and which, as stated above, is always found in the representations of donors on our tenth-century paintings.[13] Still further to the left is depicted a husbandman in lobed and tailed cap, driving a plough before which are harnessed a dark bull or cow and a smaller whitish animal of the bovine species, apparently reluctant to move on.

In the left corner scene we see a personage in official dress seated on a small platform or throne before the gate of what seems to represent a walled palace. To the left of him a demon-like figure is shown striding, while on the right he is being approached by a group comprising a Buddha and two smaller figures of monkish disciples. A little to the right of this group stands a layman in adoring pose; above the whole there appears a dragon-like monster descending on a cloud. In the background to the right within the arched opening of a reed hut is seen a pair, apparently man and wife, seated on a low platform before which stands erect a lady wearing the wide-sleeved dress and the elaborate coiffure familiar from the donatrices of our tenth-century pictures.[14]

If the significance and interrelation of the top scenes at present escapes us we have less difficulty about the general interpretation of those at the bottom of the picture. On the right and left the scenes placed below the flanking terraces of the Paradise manifestly show conversions to the Buddhist Law. On the right is seen a personage elaborately dressed and obviously of high rank, who is seated upright on a square platform, with feet on a footstool, undergoing tonsure by a monk. Four men in secular costume, holding rolls of paper in their hands, stand behind him. Three others attend in front, one of them holding a wide dish to receive the cut hair and a second carrying a vase. In the background stands a groom holding three elaborately caparisoned horses. Their figures are well drawn with elegant small heads, broad shapely breasts, and slim legs. Two are white and one red. Their type closely recalls the present Badakhshī breed of Western Turkestān, a favourite region for China’s horse imports since early times; it is exactly represented also among the numerous clay figures of horses which in 1915 I excavated in plenty from Turfān graves of the T‘ang period. The saddles, high-pommeled at back and front, and covered with long saddle-cloths, are met with there also. For the ornamentation of headstall, breast-band, and crupper, reference to a painted panel from Dandān-oilik showing a horseman and also of the T‘ang period is instructive.[15]

The scene on the left forms an exact pendant to the one just described. Here a lady similarly placed and attired is having her head shaved by a monk. Among the attendants behind her two ladies have their hair done in topknots with two high loops, whereas two others, evidently girls, wear it in a bunch on either side of the head with a short lock hanging from each. Behind appear bearers of the hexagonal palanquin with pagoda roof, of which a small portion is included in the reproduction.

The central scene shows the adorning of a Stūpa or Buddhist relic tower and presents points of distinct antiquarian interest. Its shape is cylindrical, with a low flat dome and a square base below. A three-tiered umbrella, hung with streamers and metal ornaments, surmounts it. Below workmen are seen engaged in arranging the draperies. Two long tables are laden with flasks, bowls, and other offerings, while bundles of manuscript rolls are placed at either side; they are all likely to represent votive gifts made at the time of consecration.

PLATE X

AMITĀBHA WITH ATTENDANTS

The painting (Ch. liii. 001) which this Plate successfully reproduces in colours, on the scale of three-eighths of the original, is a good representative of the small but interesting class of what may be designated as simplified Paradise pictures. We see in it Amitābha enthroned on a lotus between Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāma, with two lesser Bodhisattvas in front and a row of well-individualized disciples behind. No lake is represented; but a comparison with the painting represented in the next Plate, XI, with which ours shares a number of marked peculiarities in composition, style, colour, and treatment, suffices to show that a representation of Amitābha’s Heaven is intended.

Amitābha is seated with legs interlocked and his right hand raised in the usual _vitarka-mudrā_. His flesh is yellow shaded with red which has changed to a curious iridescent mauve; his hair a bright blue. His mantle, vivid crimson, is wrapped round both shoulders, its drapery reproducing all details of the arrangement which Graeco-Buddhist sculpture had borrowed from Hellenistic art and handed over to be stereotyped with hieratic convention in the Buddha figures of Central Asia and the Far East. The lotus, his seat, is raised on a high stepped pedestal and has its pink petals covered all over with beautiful floral scrolls in white, blue, and black. Similar rich scroll-work adorns the base of the pedestal and reappears on the canopy which hangs above the Buddha’s head, raised on two trees. Their stems are treated like jewelled poles, and their large star-shaped leaves are arranged in whorls enclosing conical clusters of red fruit. An Apsaras sweeps down on either side, scattering flowers; her floating garments and the gracefully curling clouds which support her express rapidity of movement.

Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāma occupy well-designed, if less ornate, lotus seats, the former raising a flaming jewel in his left hand and the latter an alms-bowl. Among the multicoloured jewellery with which they are bedecked, the Dhyāni-buddha set in front of the tiara may be mentioned. Below them are seated two lesser Bodhisattvas, in similarly rich dress and adornment, the one, in profile, holding a red lotus, the other, in three-quarters profile, a flask. Their foreshortened elliptical haloes in green and the transparent light blue stoles deserve notice.

A particularly interesting element is introduced into the celestial company by the six disciples ranged behind the triad, three a side in ascending tier. They all have the shaven heads of monks and plump solid features; but their alert faces are well individualized and the expression markedly varies, from the jovial smile of the second figure on the right to the serious and even severe look of the last on the left. It is specially regrettable here that, as in so many of our paintings, the cartouches above the different divine figures have not been filled in. The red lotus bud carried by the last disciple on the left and the priest’s staff in the hand of the corresponding figure on the right do not help to identify them, nor do the crossbars on their mantles. The haloes of all these figures, including those of the triad, are only outlined in narrow rings of red and white, the interior being shown as practically transparent—not a usual treatment.

Below Amitābha’s lotus seat, and partly covering the front of its pedestal, is the panel for the dedicatory inscription, in the form of a stone slab with a low arched top, carried on the back of a tortoise. Unfortunately the dedication was never inscribed, and we are thus left without means for exactly dating this interesting picture. But very valuable help in this direction is afforded by what remains of the figures of the donors in the bottom corners. That of the man on the right is lost, except for the top of his cap. But that of the wife kneeling on the left is complete and a figure of great charm. It is manifestly a portrait, painted with considerable skill, and was deservedly chosen by M. Petrucci for full-size reproduction in the Vignette of the present publication.

The lady kneels on a mat, her hands holding a long-stemmed red flower. The pose and face admirably express pious devotion. The delicate treatment of the features distinctly recalls that of female heads in a silk painting, unfortunately very fragmentary, which I recovered in 1915 from a seventh-century Chinese tomb at Turfān. The lady’s costume, with its pleated skirt high under the arms, small bodice with long narrow sleeves, and little crossover shawl, as well as her hair plainly done in a small knot on the neck, represent a fashion distinctly older than that to be seen in the donatrices’ figures of our earliest dated picture (see Pl. XVI) of A.D. 864. We find the same indications of an early date in the dresses and coiffures worn by the donors and donatrices in the silk painting Ch. xlvii. 001 (Pl. XI), which shares many peculiarities of our picture, and also in the undoubtedly ancient embroidery picture shown in Plates XXXIV, XXXV.[16]

This chronological observation lends special interest to a notable point of technique, the use of ‘high lights’ to bring out the modelling of the flesh, in addition to ordinary colour shading. This is very conspicuous in the faces of the monkish disciples, and equally striking also in most of the figures in Plate XI, but it cannot be traced elsewhere among our Ch‘ien-fo-tung paintings. The western origin of this system of modelling has been duly emphasized by Mr. Binyon.[17]

PLATE XI

A PARADISE OF AMITĀBHA

In this large and on the whole fairly preserved silk painting (Ch. xlvii. 001), reproduced on the scale of one-fourth, we have a Sukhāvatī scheme fully developed on lines which, while closely resembling those of the picture last discussed, differ from those of the usual Buddhist Paradise type. It shows us Amitābha and his two chief Bodhisattvas seated on lotus thrones rising from the Sukhāvatī lake, and on the terrace forming the foreground various celestial beings characteristic of Paradise scenes.

Amitābha, closely draped, raises his right hand in the _vitarka-mudrā_, while his left, mostly destroyed, is held against the breast. His flesh is yellow, as usual, his hair grey with outlines and close curls indicated in black as if copied from statuary. On either side of him is an elaborately decorated pillar with a flaming jewel at the top. Two trees with leaves as already described in Plate X rise behind him and support a canopy ornamented with rich floral scrolls. Two Apsaras sweep down on either side of it, just as seen in Plate X and the embroidery picture, Plate XXXIV.

Similar trees carrying many-tiered canopies rise over Avalokiteśvara seated on the left and Mahāsthāma on the right. Two attendant Bodhisattvas, in equally rich attire as theirs, stand by their sides with hands in varying poses. The flower-spotted materials of the Bodhisattvas’ robes and the graceful figure of the attendant to Avalokiteśvara’s right may be noted. At the back of the triad a wall of many-coloured marble blocks bounds the lake. In the air above descend Buddhas seated on clouds; cleverly drawn figures of naked infants, representing reborn souls, float with outspread stoles, while beribboned musical instruments symbolize harmonies pervading space.

On the lake swim ducks, emblems of happiness, and oval lotus buds rise enveloping infant souls. Inscriptions beside the lotuses describe the rank taken by the soul in its new life. There is no altar before the Buddha, as in other Paradise scenes, no dancer or musicians, no celestial mansions. But a sacred vessel is borne on a lotus from the water before Amitābha and small Bodhisattvas kneel on either side. In front of them again, on a wooden platform, are grouped a two-headed Garuḍa, a phoenix, duck, crane, and peacock.

On the terrace which fills the whole foreground are seated Bodhisattvas four a side and well spaced. By the rail in front are two half-naked infants, no doubt newly born souls, one advancing slowly, the other dancing or running. Both hold flowers or berries and have, like the infants in the sky, their heads shaved except for a two-lobed tuft of hair over the forehead and one over each ear.[18] Between them and the Bodhisattvas are shown large flaming jewels on lotuses.

In the middle by the side of a slab, arched at the top and intended for a dedicatory inscription but left blank, are shown the small figures of the donors. On the right kneel two men with long belted coats and small lobed and tailed caps. Their attire bears close resemblance to the quasi-archaic dress in the Jātaka scenes as presented by our banners, and also to that in certain relievos of the early Buddhist cave shrines of Yün-kang and Lung-mên.[19] The costume and coiffure of the lady kneeling on the left agree exactly with those of the donatrix seen in the preceding Plate and the Vignette. As regards the chronological evidence which these details of attire afford, I may refer to my remarks on that Plate.[20]

With the picture reproduced in Plate X our painting shares also a number of other characteristic peculiarities, such as the use of ‘high lights’ for the modelling of the flesh; the unobtrusiveness of the haloes, which are transparent and often shown only in outlines; the flower patterns spotting the materials of the robes, &c. On the other hand, striking differences of composition, such as the total absence of the celestial mansions in the background and the ample spacing of the figures, make it clear that we have here preserved a specimen of a Sukhāvatī scheme developed independently of the orthodox type which prevails among our Ch‘ien-fo-tung paintings, whether on silk or mural, and which has become stereotyped in Japan.

There is a general absence of vivid colours in our picture. Dull green, with grey and black for the tiled terrace in front, prevails in the background, and dull green, light pink or red, and greenish grey in the colouring of figures and accessories. This quiet and coolness of colouring and a certain emptiness of the background give an effect of air and space which such crowded compositions as the Paradise seen in Plates I, II lack. The drawing is free and rapid but rather rough in detail.

PLATE XII

SCENES FROM GAUTAMA BUDDHA’S LIFE