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

productions we should also meet with a number of banners which are unmistakable replicas of others actually represented in the collection can in no way cause surprise."

Among the Bodhisattva pictures other than banners the vast majority represent Avalokitegvara either singly or with attendant divinities. Before, however, we proceed to a rapid synopsis of them or to that of the much smaller groups showing other Bodhisattvas, either alone or in their respective ` Mandalas', it will be convenient to refer to two pictures and the fragments of a third and fourth which stand apart from the rest as illustrations of the Tibetan style of painting not otherwise represented in the collection. No better place can be found for mentioning them, even though one, and this the more interesting, does not appear to represent a Bodhisattva but the goddess Tara, the `Sakti ' of Avalokite§vara. Ch. lii. ooi is a completely preserved painting on linen showing colours laid on in distemper over a coat of a white waxy substance.19 Executed in the matured Tibetan style, it is probably one of the earliest examples existing. It shows the goddess seated on a floating lotus and surrounded by eight subsidiary forms of Tara, with small scenes of danger and deliverance interspersed between them. A striking demonic figure is seen in the centre foreground, mounted on a horse.20 A second example of purely Tibetan style is Ch. lv. 0024, a large painting on close-woven linen representing Avalokitegvara seated, with small figures of Bodhisattvas and sacred emblems filling the rectangular frame which encloses the main image. In Ch. oo383. a—c we have large fragments of two paper paintings executed in purely Tibetan style, of which one probably contained a ` Mandala' with Tantric divinities, while all that remains of the other shows a series of seated Bodhisattvas.

The paintings which show Bodhisattvas other than Avalokitegvara are relatively so few that it will be convenient to mention them first. Manju§ri, on his lion, is represented in the paper painting Ch. 00163 (Plate XCI) in the same style as he appears on the banners. Vajrapâni and the ` Bodhisattva of the Sun ' are the subjects each of a single paper painting, the former of Ch. lviii. 009 and the latter of Ch. oo2II. The second Bodhisattva is characterized by the sun-bird which figures so frequently in certain ` Mandalas' of Avalokitegvara to be described below.21 A small series of paper paintings, Ch. 00162 (Plate XCI) ; xvii. 002 ; xxii. 0033, shows us Bodhisattva-like divinities, riling on phoenix, peacock, or yak, which still.await certain identification.

But far more interesting and important, in respect both of iconography and artistic value, are the paintings which represent Ksitigarbha, Avalokite6vara's only possible rival in popularity among the Bodhisattvas of the Buddhist Pantheon of the Far East. We have already had occasion to

mention the banners which show him in the priest's garb like the Japanese Jizi5.22    He is 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 illuminates its darkness.' 23 The several aspects of his character are well illustrated by our paintings. In Ch. 0084 (Plate LXX) and i. 0012 (Plate LXII), the former a picture of considerable charm, we see him seated as Patron of Travellers, holding the emblems just mentioned and with his head dressed in the traveller's shawl.24 Ch. lvi. 0017, a large silk painting,

Bodhisattva paintings in Tibetan style.

Paintings of Bodhisattvas other than Avalokite§vara.

Paintings of Ksitigarbha.

18 Thus we have e.g. replicas of Ch. 0083 in i. 005 and lv. 0026 ; of o03 in xl. 004 ; of i. 002 in xlvi. 001 ; of lv. oo6 in Ch. 00142, etc.

19 For a reproduction in colour, see Thousand B., Pl. XXXI.

M. Petrucci, in Appendix E, III. viii. sec. 4, takes the central figure for Avalokite§vara and the surrounding figures for different forms of that Bodhisattva.

40 A representation of Târâ is found in the collection only

1174

once again, in the fragment of a paper painting, Ch. 00401, executed in ' Indian' style and apparently showing the goddess in the garb of a Bodhisattva.

21 See below, pp. 868 sq.

22 See above, p. 864, note 16.

sa Cf. Mr. Binyon's notes in Exhibition of Stein Collection,

pp. 7 sq.

2.1 For a reproduction in colour, see Thousand B., Pl. XL.

5s