国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

damaged. The flesh is pale and partly oxidized, especially the whites of the eyes,

as in the previous example. The hair is blue-black; the eyebrows faded or shaven.

Behind the head is a green nimbus bordered with buff; and the robe is pale pink,

shaded with red and blue-edged. The under-robe, showing below the breast, is

blue-black. The contour lines are black and the background rich red.

Bez. xiii. D. b

The head of a Bodhisattva with black hair dressed in a top-knot, with two thin

tresses looped across the ear and others hanging to and rippling forward over the

shoulders. The flesh and eyes are like those of the monk. The eyebrows are less

arched than usual, and they do not meet; but they and the moustache and `imperial'

are fantastically drawn. The tilaka is oxidized to grey, and there is no colour on the

lips. The taenia is very pale pink, outlined with blue. A double band, pink and

grey, encircles the neck. The nimbus is white, bordered with shaded blue and red,

and the robe is red.

This, and the two preceding examples, although unequal in quality, show con-

siderable skill and freedom in the drawing of contour lines; and if not all painted

by the same hand, are produced under the direction of one artist, whose style is

different from that of most of the Bezeklik work.

Bez. xiii. A

Like the examples above, this is in a bad state, and seems to have been deliber-

ately damaged. It shows four or five stalwart male figures, clad only in closely tied

dhotis, wading in a turbulent torrent. The first two figures to the right, as they press

forward raise the left hand, perhaps as a gesture of reassurance. The dhoti of the

first is white, edged with green; the second red, edged with green and with white

(probably abraded green) at the waist. On the next two, to the left, no dhoti is

distinguishable. To the extreme right is a small fragment of a fifth figure; and to

the left is the top of the head of another; and there were probably more. All appear

to have long hair dressed in a high top-knot with tresses hanging behind the

shoulders. The flesh is oxidized to brownish-black; the hair is blue-black. As they

force their way through the raging water the action of the men is very realistic,

and such as would be familiar to those living near the mountain gorges of the

locality, subject to spate in seasonal torrential floods.

The water is blue-grey, contoured in Chinese style with blue. There appears to

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