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890 PICTORIAL REMAINS FROM THE THOUSAND BUDDHAS [Chap. XXIII

but offer no other mark for definite identification. The colour-scheme is unusual and the painting is remarkably fresh.

Apart from a fragment, Ch. lv. oo2, representing an as yet unidentified Jataka scene which may have once belonged to the side of a Sukhavati, there remain only two pictures of this class to be considered by us. One is the well-preserved silk painting Ch. lviii. ooi (Plate LVIII) which represents the Heaven of Maitreya and, above and below it, scenes taken with their inscriptions from the Maiireyavyiikarana-sfitra.38 Not equal in composition and artistic execution to the best of the other Paradise pictures, it yet claims special interest as the only representation of that famous Tusita Heaven in which the future Buddha of the world period is supposed to reside. There, according to sacred legends, numerous great Masters of the Law had proceeded to consult Maitreya, and there pious Hsiian-tsang desired to obtain his rebirth.' That Maitreya is presented to us in the centre of the painting as a Buddha, though his attainment of the Bodhi still belongs to a future age, is entirely in keeping with the iconographic practice of Northern Buddhism." But our picture does not show him either with the dharmacakra-mudrä of the hands, which is his usual characteristic when seated, or with the small flask of ambrosia, already his accepted cognizance in Gandhara art.'" Nor can the two large Bodhisattvas seated by his side be identified at present. The two monkish figures which appear between them and Maitreya are explained by M. Petrucci as representing the Genii of Good and of Evil. Two Lokapalas and two Vajrapanis, exactly of the banner type, flank the principal triad. The group of dancer and musicians in front of Maitreya's altar, and one subsidiary Buddha with his Bodhisattvas occupying the end of the terrace on either side, complete the simple and yet overcrowded scheme of this Paradise.

With regard to the legendary scenes at the top, two observations must suffice here. On the heads of the figures at the right, apparently magistrates, we note the wide-flapped black hats which are almost invariably worn by the donors of our tenth-century paintings. That the setting of these, as of all other legendary scenes, is designed on purely Chinese lines is proved in characteristic fashion by the ranges of pine-clad mountains which serve to divide the top scenes from Maitreya's Heaven. No painter about Tun-huang is ever likely to have seen such mountains around him, still less any of the artists whose work lay in those Turkestan oases at the foot of the most barren of ranges. At the bottom of the painting the central scene showing the construction of a Stûpa is of distinct antiquarian interest. The shape of the Stûpa proper seems to be cylindrical, with a low flat dome and resting on a square base. The objects displayed on long altars by its sides, including bundles of manuscript rolls, may represent votive offerings made at the time of consecration. The scenes in the bottom corners, which show the reception into Buddhist orders of a man and a lady, both marked by their following as personages of rank, also offer points of archaeological interest.

Quite apart from the other Paradise pictures stands the large silk painting Ch. 00350.42 In its upper third it contains the representation of a Buddhist heaven ; but the rest is occupied by scenes,

Paradise of Maitreya, Ch. lviii. OOI.

Legendary and votive scenes in Ch. lviii. OOI.

Painting of Paradise unidentified.

se For large-scale reproductions of parts of this painting, see Thousand B., Pl. Ix. The explanation of the legendary scenes, first identified by M. Petrucci (Annales du Muscle Guimet, xli. pp. 127 sq.), and the interpretation of the inscriptions were to have been furnished in MM. Petrucci and Chavannes' separate volume in the Mimoires concernant l'Asie orientale. For other details, cf. Appendix E, III. v.

39 Cf. Foucher, Iconographie bouddhique, i. p. 113, with note x ; also Julien, Vie de Hiouen-Isiang, p. 345.

Why Maitreya should have to rest content with a single representation of his Heaven among our paintings, while other

Buddhas' Sukhavatis are so numerous, need not concern us here. But it is significant that Japanese archaeologists seem still in doubt whether his ' Mandala ' was ever painted ; see Petrucci, Annales du Musk Guimel, xli. p. 127.

'0 Cf. Grünwedel-Burgess, Buddhist Art, pp. 185 sq., 189.

4' Cf. Grünwedel-Burgess, loc. cit., pp. 186, 191.

42 I regret that no reproduction of this interesting painting could be provided. It was for exhibition purposes left to the last in the condition of a crumpled-up bundle, just as originally recovered.