National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

The many bands of plain colour bordering nimbus and vesica are characteristic

of examples from the Domoko district sites. The little flickering white flames

(?) spurting from between the radiating bands beside the nimbus are seen also

on the nimbus of Har. B on the title-page.

FRAGMENT OF A PAINTING FROM MING-OI XIII

MING-oI, or the `Thousand Houses', is a collection of ruined shrines, north of

the Taklamakán Desert, about four miles to the north of Shórchuk and about

twelve miles south-south-west of Kara-shahr. From the subjects of other

paintings recovered from the walls of this `house', it would seem to have been

a monastery or ecclesiastical college. The pictures Mi. xiii. I-4, 5-9, and II-I2,

now in the British Museum, give a series of scenes in which an elderly teacher

is lecturing to men of various ages dressed in monkish robes, each of whom holds

a writing-tablet and pen or stylus, with which he takes notes. Others are seated,

each in a separate cave cell, apparently studying or writing. These pictures are

reproduced on plates cxxiv—cxxvi, Serindia.

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Mi. xiii. IO

Part of a panel showing a group of monks or acolytes standing in two rows, six

behind and four in front; turned three-quarters to the left, with hands folded in an

attitude of devotion. Those in front are drawn to a smaller scale than the others,

perhaps to emphasize their more youthful age. All are wearing pale yellow or

yellow-green robes, `tailored' to fit closely round their narrow waists; flared at the

hips, and draped over the left shoulder, leaving the breast and right forearm bare.

This shaping of the robe to fit the body while retaining the looseness of the usual

Buddha robe at the shoulders is peculiar, as is also the use of figured material.

The patterns of the figuring are Sino-Sasanian. The men in the back row have

vermilion under-robes reaching to the feet, shod with dainty black slippers orna-

mented with a row of white spots round the opening. The figure to the left shows

the top of a maroon under-garment, crossing the breast, and a similar garment is

seen on the two figures on the left of the front row. From the closed finger-tips of

each monk in the back row issues a three-leaved sprig, which rises gracefully

above the right shoulder and pleasantly furnishes the space between the heads. The

artist has avoided monotony in repetition by permitting the third from the left to

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