Chapter IV (3)

The lower portion of the painting is filled by a procession moving to the left and comprising a high Chinese dignitary in the centre and his numerous retinue. In this central figure, who is attended by two men holding crossed fans over his head and is obviously the donor, we may in all probability recognize one of those local chiefs who, as we know from Chinese historical notices and inscriptions, ruled the region of Tun-huang in the ninth and tenth centuries as hereditary governors under the suzerainty of the Emperors.[48] This personage, over a trailing white under-robe, wears a black jacket ornamented with symbols in yellow, of which the discs emblematic of the Sun and the Moon, a pair of rampant dragons, and the Svastika can be made out quite clearly. He alone appears as a worshipper, and an elaborate head-dress of peculiar shape marks his high rank.

In his _cortège_ we see officials wearing white under-robes and black jackets with various formal patterns of a stiff black head-dress. Three among them carry long swords before them, pointed downwards, while two hold rolls of paper. One of the latter, walking beside the chief, is represented as a mere boy and may perhaps be a son. Two others in somewhat different costume, including shirts of mail under shorter jackets, walk a little apart. The two fan-bearers are attired in short jackets and white trousers, and on the feet of the coarsely drawn figure to the right we notice string sandals of exactly the same type as attested by plentiful specimens among my finds from the Tun-huang _Limes_.

There can be no doubt that the lower portion of the picture, with its animated if rather rough drawing, represents a scene such as old Tun-huang must have often witnessed on ceremonial occasions. It is hence specially to be regretted that the absence of any dedicatory inscription leaves us in ignorance of the date and the particular local chief represented.

PLATE XXV

TWO PAINTINGS OF KṢITIGARBHA

Both the paintings of this Plate represent Kṣitigarbha, Avalokiteśvara’s only possible rival in popularity among the Bodhisattvas of the Buddhist Pantheon of the Far East. Though well known in China as Ti-tsang and in Japan as Jizō, yet his early and frequent appearance among the Ch‘ien-fo-tung paintings was something of a surprise, considering that neither in Indian nor in Central-Asian Buddhism does his figure play a prominent part. Among the Bodhisattvas represented in our banners he is always clearly distinguished by the shaven head of the monk and the barred or mottled mantle, the mendicant’s garment.[49] Other paintings help to illustrate the several aspects of his character which account for his still prevailing popularity in the Far East.

‘There he is still worshipped as one of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas. Through countless incarnations he has been working for the salvation of living beings, and he is in especial honoured as the breaker of the powers of hell. With his pilgrim’s staff he strikes upon the doors of hell and opens them, and with the lustrous pearl which he carries he illustrates its darkness. He is represented as Lord of the Six Worlds of Desire, the world of the Devas or heavenly spirits, of men and women, of Asuras or demons, of beings in hell, of Pretas or devils, and of animals; and also as the supreme Regent of Hell with the Ten Infernal Kings or Magistrates under him.’[50]

It is in this last-named character that we see Kṣitigarbha represented in the large silk painting (Ch. 0021) which is reproduced on the right of Plate XXV, on the scale of one-third. The Bodhisattva is seen seated on a rock covered with a figured cloth. His right foot rests on a lotus and the left is bent across. The left hand holds the mendicant’s staff over his shoulder, while the right, resting on the knee, supports a crystal ball. Over a green under-robe he wears a mantle of grey, mottled with black, red, and green, and barred with yellow. The traveller’s shawl, grey ornamented with a spot pattern in yellow, is bound round his head and falls on his shoulders. Of the usual Bodhisattvas’ adornment only a jewelled necklace and bracelets appear. A multicoloured halo, edged with flames, forms the background to the figure, while above it hangs a canopy represented by flowered sprays and strings of jewels.

Down the two sides are ranged the ten Infernal Kings or Magistrates, seated at draped tables, on which scrolls of judgement are spread. Attendants wait on them in varying attitudes, taking instructions, delivering reports, holding fans, &c. With the exception of a fan-holder in demon shape, the attendants are all in secular Chinese dress. All the Judges but one wear Chinese magisterial costume: long under-robes, voluminous wide-sleeved coats of scarlet and white, and official head-dress in a variety of shapes, black, yellow, or white. The topmost Judge on the right is clad in full armour, with helmet and a coat of mail, fringed with tiger-skin, and reaching down to the feet.

In front of Kṣitigarbha is seated a white lion, faced by a monk raising his hands in adoration to the Bodhisattva. Further in the foreground we see a condemned soul, naked except for a loin-cloth, and wearing the _cangue_, led by an ox-headed mace-carrying demon. In a magic mirror he is made to see the crime for which he has been condemned—the murder of an ox. A cloud above the mirror marks the scene as a dream. Beside the mirror stands an attendant holding brush and scroll.

The numerous cartouches scattered about have been left uninscribed, or have become illegible. The same is the case with those by the donors’ figures at the foot of the picture. Foremost on either side kneels a monk holding a censer. Behind the one on the right stands a boy attendant holding the fungus sceptre (_ju-ī_), and behind him again kneels a man with the wide-brimmed black hat usual in tenth-century costume. The same chronological indication is furnished by the dress and coiffure of the ladies who are shown kneeling behind the monk on the left.

The picture on the left of the Plate (Ch. lviii. 003, reproduced on the scale of three-eighths) is complete with its border of purple silk gauze and suspension loops, and shows Kṣitigarbha in his character of Lord of the Six Worlds, or _Gatis_, and Patron of Travellers. He sits facing the spectator on a scarlet lotus in a pose which is the exact reverse of the one shown by Kṣitigarbha in the previously described painting. Thus the right hand holds the mendicant’s staff and the left the ball of crystal. The under-robe, shaded in red and green, is covered by a mantle of red and black inwoven on white ground and barred with black. Over his head and shoulders is thrown a grey shawl ornamented with yellow spots and having a scarlet border on which large flowers in green and white are figured.

On a flat-topped rock in front of the Bodhisattva, covered with an altar-cloth, is a large green bowl, containing an open lotus. On either side sits or kneels a Bodhisattva in adoring attitude.

From either side of Kṣitigarbha’s red and green halo rise three waving rays of scarlet; each of them carry small figures meant to represent the Six Worlds of Desire. They are on the right: above, a man for the World of Men; a deity supporting discs of the Sun and Moon, for the World of the Gods; a Preta amongst flames for the World of Hell. On the left the Bodhisattva-like figure at the top represents the World of the Asuras, or demigods; on the middle ray two representatives of the World of Animals are recognizable in spite of the broken condition of the silk, while below a devil with pitchfork and cauldron symbolizes the World of Demons.

At the bottom of the picture we see represented a stone slab bearing a dedicatory inscription and on either side of it two finely drawn figures of men and ladies respectively. Their costume and hair-dress furnish good examples of the type characteristic or donor figures of the tenth century. The inscription on the slab is dated in A. D. 963, and according to M. Petrucci records the dedication of the painting by a certain votary who prays for deliverance from long illness. He makes his offering also for the benefit of his departed parents and of two other relatives named in the cartouches by their sides.

PLATE XXVI

VAIŚRAVAṆA’S PROGRESS

The excellently preserved painting (Ch. xxxvii. 002) which this Plate reproduces on a scale of slightly over one-half presents to us the triumphant progress of Vaiśravaṇa, Guardian of the North and the principal of the Lokapālas, or Protectors of the Four Regions. The important position which the Lokapālas still enjoy in popular Buddhist worship of the Far East is clearly marked by the frequency of their representation among our Ch‘ien-fo-tung paintings. This again fully agrees with the early origin of their conception as attested by Indian art and tradition, and with what numerous frescoes and sculptures brought to light by recent excavations in Chinese Turkestān show as to their popularity in Central-Asian Buddhism.[51]

The foremost place among the Lokapālas of our paintings is occupied by Vaiśravaṇa, the Protector of the Northern Region. This is fully accounted for by the early Indian notion which identified this particular ‘world-protector’ with Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth, King of the Yakṣas. A further reason may be sought in the special worship which Vaiśravaṇa as _genius loci_ enjoyed at Khotan, a main seat of Buddhism in Eastern Turkestān and one in close relations with Tun-huang.[52] Apart from the frequent appearance of his figure in our banners, Vaiśravaṇa’s pre-eminent position is attested by the fact that, alone among the Protectors of the Regions, he is found in pictures attended by his demon host and in triumphant procession.

With one of these pictures, the small Kakemono-shaped silk painting reproduced in Plate XLV and a work of high artistic merit, we shall concern ourselves below. The other shown by our Plate, if not so careful in design and execution, is yet remarkable for its spirited composition and displays points of distinct iconographic interest. It represents Vaiśravaṇa riding in full gallop across the ocean accompanied by a numerous host representing his army of Yakṣas, or demons. He is seen, as always, in the guise of a warrior king, and wears here a young and strongly human appearance. Mounted on a white horse with scarlet mane and tail, he turns back in the saddle and with his mouth open seems to call to his followers. The right hand is raised, while the left grasps the reins. The straight nose and eyes give a distinctly Western look to his face, and in agreement with this are the light blue iris of the eyes and the dark brown colour of the hair, including a recurved moustache and tufts of beard and whiskers.

A long close-fitting coat of scale armour,[53] coloured yellow with scarlet straps and border, reaches down below the knee. A leather skirt-piece ornamented with flowers is secured round the waist and hips, and below the coat floats out a long olive-green under-robe. A high three-leaved crown covers the head; its shape and the long streamers flying up from behind it distinctly suggest derivation from Persian models. There are more indications also of Iranian influence in details of this and other Lokapāla pictures; but this is not the place to discuss them.[54] Broad streamers of flame rise from Vaiśravaṇa’s shoulders and take the place of a nimbus.

There are points of interest also in the accoutrement of Vaiśravaṇa’s horse. Its head, which is very small in proportion to neck and body, is protected by a frontlet of scale-armour. Above the head-stall is fixed a pair of black and white feathers. The numerous pompon-like knobs or tassels which hang from the breast-band and crupper belong to a type of ‘horse-millinery’ which is well known from Buddhist paintings of Central Asia and India and is characteristic also of the representation of chargers in Sassanian relievos.[55] Passing reference may be made here also to the appearance of decorative motifs unmistakably borrowed from textiles of ‘Sassanian’ style on the Lokapāla’s dress and that of his horse.

In front of Vaiśravaṇa march two Yakṣas clad in what seems to be meant for mail armour and carrying red pennons. Behind him are seen moving other demon followers, all grotesque in appearance, and two with animal jaws, &c. They carry a large flag decorated with a peculiar check and vandyke pattern and a miniature Stūpa, both emblems associated with Vaiśravaṇa also in the picture of Plate XLV, as well as a battle-axe and bow and arrows. In the foreground are shown in violent movement three goblins of savage look carrying jars and vases and apparently quarrelling with the Yakṣas. As one of them attacks the latter with a branch of coral or ‘Nāga tree’ in his hand, they may represent the Nāgas from whom according to the legend Vaiśravaṇa won his treasure. The flaming jewels and square-holed coins scattered in the foreground seem to have the same symbolic bearing.

At the rear stand two human figures in Chinese secular costume, the man with a mitre-like head-dress and a roll in his hands, the fair-faced lady with hands joined in adoration and her hair done in the elaborate tenth-century fashion. Whether they are meant for the donors of the picture seems uncertain. The whole host is swept along on a cloud from Vaiśravaṇa’s mansion, represented by a Chinese pavilion in the left top corner, and moves across the sea, which is bounded in the background by a mountain range (Mount Meru) and in the foreground by cliffs. Infants, ducks, a shark-jawed monster’s head, and a nymph float here in the water between scarlet lotuses, while on the cliffs there appears a stag. Flowers are scattered in the air above.

The workmanship, while well finished throughout, shows an ease and boldness which befits the subject. The simplicity of the colour scheme, which is almost entirely confined to yellow, scarlet, and white on greenish-brown tints of the background, helps the eye to take in the rapidity of the movement represented.

PLATE XXVII

VIRŪPĀKṢA AND MAÑJUŚRĪ

The silk banner reproduced on the right, on the scale of three-fifths (Ch. 0040), presents a fine example of the banners showing Virūpākṣa, the Guardian of the West. Next to Vaiśravaṇa he is the most frequently portrayed of Lokapālas in our paintings, always clearly recognizable by his particular emblem, the sword. Like the rest of the ‘Four Great Kings’ shown in the banners Virūpākṣa stands on the back of a crouching demon serving as his ‘cognizance’ (_vāhana_) and representing the Yakṣas over whom he rules. A small curling cloud above his haloed head marks the whole as a vision. Both ends of the banner are broken and its accessories lost, but otherwise it is almost intact.

The figure, displaying force and dignity combined, belongs to a class of Lokapāla representations among our paintings which, from certain peculiarities in the style of treatment and in detail, may be distinguished as ‘Chinese’ from another suggesting closer affinity to a Central-Asian prototype. Representatives of both classes are seen in Plate XLVII. But the general character of the figures and their warrior costume is essentially the same throughout. This suggests, in accord with other indications, that the type, though no doubt originally derived from the West, had undergone thorough adaptation to Chinese art feeling and was fully established long before the probable period when these banners were painted.[56]

Our painting well illustrates certain characteristics of the former group in the three-quarter profile of the Lokapāla’s figure and the sweeping curve of pose, with the body thrown out to the waist; in the freedom and movement imparted to the drawing mainly by the treatment of the flowing drapery; and in some minor peculiarities of armour and dress. Though Virūpākṣa’s face is quiet, without any distortion such as usually imparts a grotesque look to the Lokapālas of the ‘Chinese’ group, we note the oblique cut of the eyes which is peculiar to it, as well as other Chinese features.

The rich armour and dress with which the Guardians of the World are always depicted and the manifold variations in their details are obviously of considerable antiquarian interest and have been fully discussed elsewhere.[57] The painting in our Plate illustrates them with particular clearness. Virūpākṣa’s head is covered by a helmet made of scale-armour and strengthened with leather bands and a wide leather brim curling up at ear-level. That the scales represented on the helmet and elsewhere are meant for scales of lacquered hard leather is made highly probable by actual scale-armour remains of this kind brought to light by my excavations at sites in the Taklamakān and Lop deserts.[58] A lotus-shaped spike is fixed on the top with a recurved gold stem in front, supporting a plume. Beneath the helmet comes a gorget, apparently also of scale-armour, descending on to the shoulders.

From there down to the hips the body is protected by a coat of mail, made of round-edged scales overlapping downwards as far as the waist-belt and of oblong scales laced sideways beyond it. A strong corslet, supported by straps from the shoulders and fitted with ornamented metal discs over the breasts, is fastened across the chest. Below is fixed an upper belt, apparently of ornamented leather. The lower belt, of black leather, carries a centrepiece in the form of an elaborate beast’s mask. The coat of mail is finished off at the bottom by a short pleated frill, shown here in green, and above the elbows by what looks like a ruff made of petal-shaped scales. From within this protrudes swathed drapery of red and dark grey, as if of sleeves.

From beneath the mail coat descends in rich folds a red skirt with blue border and whitish lining, leaving the knees bare; also the ends of a long girdle, looped up in front, curl about the legs. These from below the knees are encased in greaves, probably made of stiff leather like the corslet. A row of metal clasps secures them in front, while a large disc of dark purple leather set with a central gold boss covers the calf. The greaves are finished off at the bottom by ankle-guards, in the form of a stiff ruff, apparently also of leather. Guards of closely corresponding shape protect the forearms. The feet are shod with plain sandals held by a single toe- and heel-strap. A greenish stole, hanging round the shoulders and festooned across the front of the body, completes the Lokapāla’s rich costume.

The nude demon underfoot is shaded blue and has a dog-like face; the hands on which he crouches are misshapen and a flame bundle rising from his head takes the place of hair.

The banner reproduced on the left (Ch. 0036, scale seven-ninths) represents the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī seated on his white lion and, apart from the lost accessories, is remarkably well preserved. Its style, in instructive contrast to that of the Lokapāla picture just discussed, provides a good example of the maintenance of Indian tradition in Chinese Buddhist art.

The Bodhisattva, whom we have met already in several of the previously discussed paintings,[59] is seated on a scarlet lotus which a golden pedestal carried on the back of his ‘Vāhana’ supports. Mañjuśrī’s figure is entirely Indian in physical type, pose, and dress. With his right leg bent across and the left pendent and resting on a small blue lotus, he keeps his body inclined to the left proper. To the right hand stretched downwards in the _vara-mudrā_ corresponds the pose of the head, which is bent over the right shoulder and balances the slant of the body. The left hand rests on the lotus-seat and holds a long-stemmed gracefully curving lotus. The body has feminine contours and is painted a dull pinkish yellow. The hair, light blue in colour, shows flat above the forehead and straggles down to the shoulder in small ringlets. The face is round with small features and oblique eyes cast downwards.

The dress is just as characteristically Indian. It consists of a short crimson _laṅgōṭī_ flowered with blue rosettes and a transparent skirt of purple gauze which drapes the legs to the ankles. A fold of this crosses the body from the left shoulder. Round the neck is thrown a narrow stole, green spotted with white, which, where it passes over the right forearm, takes the form of a ‘triple cord’, distinctively Hindu. The rich jewellery comprises heavy bracelets and anklets, serpentine armlets, ear-rings, and a double necklace from which hang green and blue lotus buds. A tiara of solid gold work, mounted with jewels, crowns the head.

Behind the figure appears a circular halo and behind the head a nimbus of elongated oval shape, both of variegated rings of colour. Above are seen the remains of a tasselled canopy waving with the lion’s advance.

The lion strides to the left with his head turned back and the mouth wide open as if roaring. His mane is represented by conventional curls in different colours. Red spots are shown on breast, jowl, and back of legs. From his breast-band and crupper hang heavy tassels and ornaments similar to those above noted on Vaiśravaṇa’s horse. The attendant who leads him by a red rope is shown as usually with very dark skin, coarse features, and bushy black hair, suggesting a negro. His dress consists of a narrow stole and a red and blue _dhōtī_-like skirt, tucked up at the knees. He wears also jewellery of a simple kind.

The design of the whole is harmonious and instinct with life, notwithstanding the hieratic conventions of the subject borrowed from distant India, and the workmanship is very careful.

PLATE XXVIII

BUST OF A LOKAPĀLA

In this Plate we see a fine fragment of a silk painting once over life-size (Ch. liv. 003), reproduced on the scale of five-eighths and showing the upper part of the body of a Lokapāla. From the bow between his arm and body and the arrow held in his hand we can safely recognize him as Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the Guardian of the East. The figure, preserved only from the bearded jaws down to the hip-belt, is standing three-fourths to the left, with the left hand outspread at the breast and holding that World-Protector’s special emblem, the arrow.

The King’s flesh is painted a tawny brown, the finely drawn and slightly parted lips deep crimson. The sweeping beard, which must have given to the face a particularly strong if not fierce expression, is black. The equipment is very rich and painted in a series of vivid colours, scarlet, orange, blue, mauve, green, and black. Profuse jewel or semi-naturalistic floral ornaments, the latter, no doubt, copied from textile designs, all painted in the same bright colours, cover the discs of the corslet, straps, borders, pedestals of the jewelled shoulder bosses, &c.

Of special interest is the representation of the armour. On the shoulders and skirt it consists of oblong scales overlapping upwards, as very often elsewhere in our paintings and also in relievos.[60] But on the body it is represented by small interlacing black circles, on a white ground, manifestly intended for chain-armour. The coat of mail is finished on the top by a blue jewelled collar, probably of hard lacquered leather like the rest of the armour, lying back from the neck. White streamers falling on the breast from behind the ears show that the Lokapāla’s head bore a tiara, not a helmet.

Though the surviving part is only a fragment, with edges broken all round, enough remains to show that with its vigorous drawing, fine workmanship, and brilliant colouring, the whole must have been a very effective picture.

PLATE XXIX

TWO DHARMAPĀLAS AND A BODHISATTVA

Among the silk banners reproduced in this Plate, all on the scale of three-fifths, the two on the sides (Ch. liv. 002 on the left and Ch. 004 on the right) show us Dharmapālas, or ‘Protectors of the Law’. These divinities are conceived as forms of Vajrapāṇi in fury and are still favourite figures in the Buddhist imagery of the Far East. Originally derived from the ancient Gandhāra representations of the thunderbolt bearer (Vajrapāṇi), they meet us already in the sixth-century relievos of the Lung-mên grottoes in China.[61] They show there those poses and that exaggerated development of the muscles which, together with other grotesque features, remain characteristics of the type exhibited in a more or less conventionalized form by the Dharmapāla figures in the paintings and sculptures of Tun-huang. These figures, as M. Foucher has justly observed, ‘already make us think of the athletic demons of Japan’.

Like the rest of our Dharmapāla paintings, the two banners reproduced here are but slightly distinguished from each other in type and may hence be briefly described together. They are excellently preserved and complete, with head-piece and streamers at bottom, which, however, from consideration of space are omitted in the Plate. Both Dharmapālas have the muscular body in tense attitude, the grotesque head with its furious downward look, and the large richly ornamented Vajra representing the thunderbolt. They stand slightly to one side with the feet planted apart on two lotuses and the head turned back over the shoulder. There is a difference in the pose of the arms and hands. In the banner on the left the Dharmapāla raises his right arm with the hand open threateningly above his head, while the left hand by the side grasps the Vajra. In the other figure the right hand supports the end of the Vajra and the left, with fingers stiffly spread, steadies it half-way up.

In either figure the head shows a grotesque face with enlarged staring eyes, misshapen nose, fierce moustaches, and a beard in long straggling tufts. The flesh is painted light brown. The muscles and joints of body and limbs are emphasized with conventional exaggeration, but with an effect full of vigour. The muscles are drawn in strong black lines to which modelling is added by brushwork in light red or pink. Abundantly decked with jewellery as the figures are, they carry but scanty dress. It comprises a short skirt, bright crimson or scarlet with slate border, which is tied round the hips by a trailing white girdle; also a narrow stole, olive green with brown or pink reverse, which winds over both forearms.

The sinuous lines of the drapery, the fillet ends of the head-dress flying upwards, the coiling clouds above the haloed heads, all help to intensify the expression of violent effort. The same end is well served by the bold lines of the drawing and the strong and clear colours used.

The banner in the centre (Ch. 001) is, but for the lost accessories, in an excellent condition, and shows in its figure a fine example of the Bodhisattva type which has been distinguished above under the conventional designation of ‘Chinese’.

The Bodhisattva, as yet unidentified, stands in a peculiar pose not elsewhere represented among our paintings. He stands on an open lotus, with the raised right hand holding at shoulder level a round bowl of mottled green glass with a metal rim. The head is turned three-quarters towards the bowl, while the left hand hangs down by the side. As the weight of the body is carried on the right leg and the body slightly inclines from the right hip towards the left shoulder, attention is cleverly drawn by the pose to the object which the right hand supports.

The face shows conventional features of the ‘Chinese’ Bodhisattva type in the small slanting eyes, heavy cheeks, and small full mouth. The down-turned corners of the mouth and the wrinkles marked below the outer ends of the nostrils impart a curious expression to the face. As in all these banners, the flesh is left the natural colour of the silk, with delicate shading in faint pink to show the modelling of face and body.

The dress is the traditional Bodhisattva attire in a particularly elaborate form. A trailing skirt of pale pink, with blue border, drapes the figure from the waist to the feet. Its upper edge is held by a white girdle and gold-edged belt. The end of this girdle hangs down with loops in front and the end of another behind it, made of a rich flowered red material. An under-robe of dull red appears only above the feet. The upper half of the body is nude except for a band of purplish-pink drapery, elaborate jewellery, and a filmy blue stole which shown in delicate transparent colour descends over shoulders and arms to the ground.

The abundant jewellery is of a type with which we have already become familiar in paintings of Avalokiteśvara and elsewhere. The head-dress consists of a narrow fillet of white drapery, ending with a narrow white band which hangs in a long loop to the knees. Over the forehead it carries a light gold ornament ending above in two lotus buds which spring backwards over the black hair. This falls behind in heavy locks down to the elbows and forms a dark background to the bust. The circular nimbus is made up of variegated rings of colour such as are seen round the heads of the Bodhisattvas in Plate XLI. The elaborate canopy is of a kind we have already met with. Its straight-hanging tassels agree with the motionless attitude of the figure. Yet notwithstanding this attitude the whole picture in its highly finished style seems instinct with life.

PLATE XXX

SIDE-SCENES AND DETAILS FROM A BUDDHIST PARADISE PAINTING

This Plate reproduces some side-scenes and small portions from the fine but very fragmentary remains of a large silk painting (Ch. 00216) representing a Buddhist Heaven, probably that of Amitābha. The colours of what is preserved are in remarkably fresh condition, and this, together with the large scale of reproduction (four-sevenths), facilitates close examination of interesting details.

Taking the side-scenes as shown in the left portion of the Plate we may note first the fine floral border which separates the two at the top from the main picture. Its vermilion ground is covered with rich trailing bunches of flowers and leaves painted in a variety of vivid colours. With their naturalistic style they closely recall the designs which are displayed by plentiful embroidery remains I recovered from the hoard of the ‘Thousand Buddhas’.[62] The outside border of the whole is decorated with bold groups of entwined tendrils in orange-red over dark brown, showing in their style a curious affinity to certain of the cloud scrolls which appear on the fine textile remains of Han times brought to light by me from ancient sites in the Lop Desert.[63]

The two side-scenes above form part of a series extending along the left side of the picture and illustrating the ancient Buddhist legend of Ajātaśatru, the wicked son of King Bimbisāra. Chinese inscriptions accompany most of these scenes; but the upper one of those here reproduced has lost its inscription and its identification is hence not quite certain. It, however, appears to represent Ajātaśatru with his sword drawn menacing Bimbisāra, who is attempting to draw his own. Both are wearing flowing robes such as form elsewhere in our paintings the costume of ministers. The scene seems laid below the stairs leading up to the royal palace.

The scene below appears, according to the but partially legible inscription, to represent Ajātaśatru after repentance entering the Buddhist monkhood. What survives of the scene shows three men in plain belted coats advancing to the left in front of a decorated and streamered pavilion. This and the building behind display very clearly characteristic features of Chinese architecture such as the tiled roofs, the recurving roof-tree ends, the confronting bird heads on the roof ridge, &c. On the right of the scene we see a subsidiary Buddha, standing with a Bodhisattva by his side, as in the corresponding groups of other Paradise paintings.[64]

The scenes below belong to a different series which extended along the bottom of the picture. They show in the left corner the Death of the Wicked. He lies stretched out on a couch placed in a verandah with his wife watching him, while two shock-headed demons strangle him with scarlet ropes. Below is seen on a cloud, as a vision, the boiling cauldron into which his body is being flung by one of the ox-headed gaolers of hell, who stands by carrying a trident-shaped pitchfork.

The adjoining scene depicts the Sickness of the Wicked. He sits up, supported by a woman, on the bed laid within a porch or verandah. In the foreground a younger woman with a lute and a man carrying a leaf-shaped red object and stooping advance towards what seems a mat with offerings laid on the ground. They are small black dishes with red contents (burning incense?), clouds of white smoke drifting from some of them.

The third scene of this series is incomplete and having lost its inscription cannot be identified. It shows a man in purple coat and tailed cap running to the back of the scene between a verandahed structure and a shrine built of grey tiles, with his hands brandishing a stick over his head. In front a man, similarly dressed and perhaps meant to be the same person, is seen with bared arms and body violently belabouring another, in purple coat and with the blue close-cropped hair of a monk, who kneels on the ground and holds his hand to his head.

Of the fragments of the main picture reproduced on the right the upper one shows us a group of musicians, seated on a small evidently carpeted platform and facing towards a dancer (now lost) as usually seen in the large Paradise pictures. Of the instruments played a psaltery, harp, lute, and two flutes of different kinds are still recognizable. It is of interest to note that the carpet with a Chinese floral pattern in the centre combines a medallion border of unmistakably ‘Sassanian’ design.[65] The Bodhisattva figure on the left belongs to the group of a standing subsidiary Buddha already mentioned.

The fragment reproduced below is from the top left corner of the picture. There, against a deep blue sky sprinkled with gilded stars and above the steeply curved indigo roof of a celestial mansion, we see a flaming jewel on a lotus pedestal; white streamers flying from a central pavilion; small drums floating in air to symbolize heavenly music, and in the middle Samantabhadra seated on his white elephant and attended by two Bodhisattvas. The drums, painted dark brown and tied with red ribbons, are of interest on account of their different shapes. Whether cylindrical or narrow-waisted, they have strings stretched outside for the production of different notes by pressure under the arm. One has also a projecting staff with cross-hammer.

PLATE XXXI

A TIBETAN PAINTING OF TĀRĀ

This Plate reproduces the only painting (Ch. lii. 001, scale three-fourths) among those brought away from the walled-up chapel which is entirely Tibetan in style. The special interest it derives from this fact is further increased by the probability of its being ‘the oldest of its kind now in existence, or at least one of the oldest’. Mr. Binyon in his Introduction[66] has already referred to the Tibetan supremacy established in the Tun-huang region from the middle of the eighth to the middle of the ninth century as explaining the presence of this Tibetan painting. He has also lucidly discussed the relation which links the art of Buddhist Tibet, in spite of its marked and strangely persistent peculiarities, closely with Chinese art. My remarks may hence be confined to the technique and iconography of the painting.

The picture, which is preserved complete together with its frame of dark green silk, is painted in tempera on strong close-woven linen. The colours have generally darkened and in places have been rubbed off, leaving whitish patches or the cloth bare.[67]

The subject is the goddess Tārā, the Śakti or female emanation of Avalokiteśvara. The goddess, represented in her usual form as a beautiful young woman, is seated in the centre on a variegated lotus which floats on the blue water of a lake. She sits with her right knee raised and the left leg bent across. The right hand with palm turned outwards in the _vara-mudrā_ rests on the right knee, the left is at the breast, both holding long curving sprays with a conventional blue lotus at the end. The pose of the body slightly inclined to the right is balanced by the head leaning in the opposite direction. The sinuous line of the whole figure conforms to a characteristic tendency of Tibetan art. The flesh had been gilded, but this gilding has almost entirely worn off.

The goddess wears a dark red skirt and stole spangled with gilded flowers. Her knees are covered with elaborately ornamented caps. Rich jewellery decks neck and breast. Above her black hair bound with scarlet fillets is set a five-leaved tiara with a high-peaked crown. A nimbus of very dark green, now almost turned to black, sets off the head, while behind the figure is shown an oval vesica with a rayed border of rainbow-like colours.

On a dark cloud above the goddess’s head appears the small figure of a Buddha seated in meditation with the alms-bowl in his lap. On either side of him, on praying mats carried by dark green clouds, sit two black-haloed saints wearing the peaked hoods of Lamas. Along the sides of the picture are ranged eight subsidiary forms of Tārā, differentiated by varying colours of flesh and dress. Their pose is the same as that of the central goddess; the right hand rests on the knee, holding a flask, and the left raises a long-stemmed blue lotus.

Interspersed between these subsidiary Tārās are shown six scenes of deliverance from Calamities similar to those represented on the sides of certain Paradise paintings, such as the one in Plates I, II. Not all are intelligible; but we may note in the middle one on the left a man being pushed over a cliff into the lake. In the scene opposite on the right he is seen calmly kneeling on a lotus, flame-encircled, while another man on the cliff above looks on in astonishment. In the left bottom corner are seen three men pursued by different animals, and to the right of them a barge-like boat sailing on the lake, with a fourth man kneeling in prayer. The men throughout these scenes are shown in Chinese secular costume such as is often seen in our Jātaka banners.

While these figures clearly point to a Chinese model of the scenes, the demonic deity in the centre of the foreground shows characteristic features of truly Tibetan taste. His squat dark blue figure sits sideways on a yellow horse, brandishing a scarlet club in his right hand. His hair is a flaming mass streaming upwards; a man’s bleeding head hangs from his saddle-cloth. It is impossible to mistake here a conception of that monstrous type which Tibetan Buddhism under the influence of Tantra doctrines absorbed from India and under that of its own demon worship has always greatly cherished.

PLATE XXXII

PAPER PICTURES OF A BODHISATTVA, SAINT, AND MONK

Of the pictures reproduced in this Plate (all on the scale of three-fifths) the two on the sides bear Tibetan inscriptions and thereby prove themselves as produced and deposited after the Tibetan conquest of Tun-huang. But there is nothing essential to distinguish their style from that of other of our paintings in which hieratic figures are represented with close adherence to traditional treatment derived from India.

The paper painting on the left (Ch. 00377) shows a Bodhisattva of the type above designated as ‘Indian’ seated on a yellow lotus, with legs all but crossed and the right hand raised in the _vitarka-mudrā_. The Tibetan inscription kindly read by Dr. Barnett[68] describes him as the ‘Lord of the upper region’, and as the Indian cosmic system places the Sun and Moon in this ‘upper region’, the discs above the Bodhisattva, with the emblem of the Sun god on the right and that of the Moon god (now effaced) on the left, are fully accounted for.

The Bodhisattva’s face bears a somewhat ferocious aspect; his flesh is faintly coloured with pink. His garments are touched with pink, crimson, and olive green, while the jewellery is left uncoloured. The black hair is tied into a high topknot and descends in stylized ringlets on the shoulders. The oval nimbus and vesica are both edged with flames.

The paper painting (Ch. 00376) on the right, which belongs to the same series, is a more pleasing production. According to the Tibetan inscription below the haloed figure represents Kālika, a disciple of Śākyamuni and the fourth of the Great Apostles. He is seated on a mat, cross-legged and wrapped in a red and buff mantle lined with olive green. The right hand carries the mendicant’s bowl; the head is shaven. The monk’s features are full of character and drawn with much decision. On the right is stuck the beggar’s staff, with a bracket from which hangs his wallet.

Superior to these paintings in design and workmanship is the drawing on paper (Ch. 00145) reproduced in the middle. It shows a monk seated on a mat in meditation. His shaven head, with large, somewhat straight, features, bears an expression of firmness and concentration admirably rendered with a few fluent lines. Neither eyes nor nose and mouth bear a Chinese look. And yet the whole drawing clearly bears the impress of a Chinese artist’s brush.

The monk wears an ample mantle, and below it an under-robe with conventional cross bars marking the mendicant’s patched garb. In front are deposited his shoes, behind to the left is placed a high stoppered vase, while on a thorn-tree to the right are hung his rosary and wallet. The drawing of the tree is unmistakably Chinese in character, and the whole disposition of the little picture illustrates the mastery of spacing inherent in Chinese artistic feeling. For once we are taken away from the sphere of hieratic conventions and brought into touch with life as the eyes of the artist, or those of an earlier master, saw it.

PLATE XXXIII

PAPER PICTURES OF HERMIT AND HORSE-DRAGON

The two pictures on paper reproduced in this Plate on the scale of three-fourths claim interest by their subjects as well as by their artistic merit. The one on the right (Ch. 00380) presents an aged hermit with a tiger walking by his side. The hermit is represented with a face extremely wrinkled, shaggy eyebrows, deeply sunken eyes and cheeks. With his right hand he leans upon a rough staff, in his left he carries a stick ending in a Vajra and fly-whisk. He wears sandals, long spotted trousers, and two tunics, the shorter of which is spotted, has long sleeves, and reaches below the waist. His head is covered by a mushroom hat put above a skull-cap and tied under the chin by scarlet bands. On his back is seen a bundle of manuscript rolls tied in a cover and slung by a chain to a thorny branch. The attachment of this branch to the hermit’s person is not clear; but in another picture of the same subject a pole supporting the bundle is shown as carried on his right shoulder.

On the further side of the old man there advances a tiger of disproportionately small size. Both figures stand on a cloud of dark red fire, and above them in the left top corner appears a small seated Buddha, also on a cloud. The paint used for the cloud scrolls has destroyed much of the paper, and of the figure too, where it was used on it. The only other colours are grey and a light pink, distributed over the clothing and figure, while the flesh is left uncoloured. The drawing of the hermit’s figure is done with masterly skill, especially in the features, to which impressive strength is imparted by a few lines combining firmness with great freedom.

Very different in character is the picture on the left (Ch. 00150), one of the very few non-Buddhistic paintings from the ‘Thousand Buddhas’. Its subject has not been determined with certainty, but may possibly be related to the story of how the Emperor Fu-hsi, the legendary founder of the Chinese polity, first received the system of written characters from a ‘horse-dragon’.[69]

Before the kneeling monster we see standing a bearded man, with smiling face, who holds tablet and brush in his hands in the act of writing. The back of his figure has been cut off when adapting the picture as a mount for the two woodcuts under which it was discovered. He is clad in a white-sleeved under-robe, long pink mantle, and a stiff black head-dress with a square ornament stuck in front. A branching column of flame rises from the tablet. Others stream from the dragon’s head and body.

The dragon is a composite monster. The head is of a conventional lion-like type, with voluminous upstanding mane, out of which rise three sharp-pointed objects resembling mountain peaks. The body suggests that of a scaly snake, with wings of curling feathers attached and with the forelegs of a bull (?). In the foreground lies a string of square-holed Chinese coins, an emblem the meaning of which at present escapes us. The whole is drawn with much vigour and, in spite of the fearsome appearance of the monster, with a distinct touch of humour.

PLATES XXXIV, XXXV

EMBROIDERY PICTURE OF ŚĀKYAMUNI ON THE VULTURE PEAK

The large hanging in silk embroidery (Ch. 00260), to which the small scale, one-tenth, and certain photographic difficulties do not allow full justice to be done in this reproduction, is by its size—the perfectly preserved central figure is close upon life-size—by its remarkably skilful execution, and by its fine colours one of the most impressive of the pictorial remains recovered. That it represents Śākyamuni on Gṛdhrakūṭa, the ‘Vulture Peak’, famous in Buddhist legend and situated near Rājagṛha, the present Rājgir, is conclusively proved by the rocks behind the Buddha’s figure in the centre.

This fine, if hieratically stiff, figure, as I have already had occasion to point out,[70] when discussing the statues shown by the pictures in Plates XIII and XIV, in every detail of its pose and dress reproduces a specific type, fixed originally by some Indian sculptural representation.[71] But if its iconographic characteristics are determined by long hieratic tradition, it is different with the setting it has found here. In the whole composition of our picture is revealed the individual touch of a master, and the skill and taste of the craftsmen who reproduced his work make it easy for us to recognize the merits of the lost original.

The design in our hanging has been worked solid throughout in satin-stitch. The embroidery has been executed with admirable care and the silks used have remained clean and glossy.[72] The ground is a coarse natural-coloured linen faced with light buff silk. This has mostly worn off in the interspaces of figures. Two of the figures, too, representing monkish disciples, having fallen along the line of folding, while the hanging was stored away and crushed for long centuries, have perished except for remains of the heads. Otherwise the picture is practically complete, and neither the effect of the whole nor that of characteristic features of treatment is impaired.

Śākyamuni stands facing the spectator with his feet on a lotus. His right arm hangs stiffly by his side with the fingers stretched downwards and the palm turned to the side. The arm wrapped in the folds of the glowing red mantle holds an ‘ear’ of it gathered at the breast. The mantle closely draped about the body falls in a point to below the knees and allows a light green under-robe to be seen thence to the ankles. The yellow lining of the mantle shows in a rippling edge along the outline of the left arm and down the body, a device which is familiar already to Gandhāra sculpture. The right shoulder and arm are left bare and are painted a deep golden yellow. The Buddha’s face is shown in light buff and, curiously enough, the right forearm as well. This distinction is emphasized in the case of the latter by the work being executed in thin rows of chain-stitch and is obviously intentional. But its iconographic significance is for the present uncertain.[73] Behind the head, with its narrow, slightly slanting eyes and hair of very dark indigo, appears a nimbus in plain rings of variegated colours. A narrow halo shaped like a lotus petal, similarly coloured, surrounds the whole figure, and behind this again appears a border of rocks emblematic of the Vulture Peak.

By the side of the Buddha stand pairs of disciples and Bodhisattvas, both on lotuses. The latter, who may represent Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāma, turn three-fourths towards him; the one on the left with hands in adoration, the other with both arms slightly advanced from the elbows and the right hand held as if in the _vara-mudrā_. The dress and adornments of these figures conform to those of Bodhisattvas of the ‘Indian’ type as already noticed, but are drawn more trimly. A certain stiffness and simplicity in their design suggest close affinity to Indian models. But in the Bodhisattvas’ faces we notice the influence of Chinese style, as also in the ornamental borders of their dress.

Of the disciples’ figures in the background enough remains to show that their heads were shaven and haloed and their dress that of monks, with mantles barred with cross-stripes. The face of the one on the Buddha’s left was lined and frowning, which suggests identity with Kāśyapa; the other with face plump and benign may represent Śāriputra. By the side of the small and somewhat stiff canopy above Śākyamuni’s head are seen two graceful Apsaras floating down with outspread arms, borne up by fine cloud scrolls and their billowing stoles. Their resemblance to the Apsaras of Plates X and XI is striking.

Below the Buddha’s feet there kneels on either side a small lion of conventional type with one forepaw lifted. Below them again is a panel for a dedication, which, however, has never been worked in. Of the narrow cartouches placed by each line of donors, only the two foremost on the men’s side bear Chinese characters, now mostly illegible.

The groups of donors on either side of the panel, disposed in strict symmetry, present special interest by their life-like treatment and by their costumes. This is easily seen from Plate XXXV, which reproduces the group of the ladies on the more adequate scale of two-fifths. Arrayed in three lines and kneeling on mats, they all wear a very plain type of dress. It comprises high-waisted skirts of brown, green, or blue, bodices with long close-fitting sleeves, and small shawl-like stoles. They have no jewels, and their hair is done in a small topknot without any ornaments. By the side of the hindmost two ladies kneels a child, and at the back stands a young female attendant in a long plain gown. On the men’s side there kneels foremost a shaven monk in a brown cloak, behind him three men dressed in long belted coats of light greenish-blue and wearing peaked and tailed caps of dark brown or blue. A young attendant with bare head holding a staff stands at the back.

A glance at the lay donors is enough to prove that the dress in each case is in closest agreement with that worn by the donors in the two paintings of Amitābha’s Paradise in Plates X and XI.[74] For these a series of concordant indications postulates a date distinctly older than that of our earliest dated picture of A.D. 864.[75] A variety of considerations lead me to believe that the date of those two paintings and of our hanging as well cannot be later than the eighth century, but may possibly be even somewhat earlier.[76]

In accessory details, too, a very close contact reveals itself between the embroidery picture and the paintings shown in Plates X and XI, proving that they belong to the same period and were probably produced under the influence of the same pictorial school. In all three we see the identical pair of graceful Apsaras figures, in an attitude not found elsewhere among our paintings. In the dress of the Bodhisattvas we may note as a common peculiarity the same brocade-like decoration of the edges of the lower robes. Peculiar, too, to the three pictures are the plain sage-green lotus seed-beds underfoot or as seats of the divine figures. Whatever the exact date of production may be, there seems little reason to doubt that the hanging must rank with the oldest of our Ch‘ien-fo-tung paintings. The needlework is of the finest, as Plate XXXV shows with particular clearness, and to this the picture owes the striking freshness of its colour effects and the excellent preservation of all parts that remain.

PLATE XXXVI

BHAIṢAJYAGURU’S PARADISE