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

93o CAVE-TEMPLES & ANTIQUES OF THE THOUSAND BUDDHAS LCh. XXV

abhaya-mudra and on either side of him a monkish disciple, a Bodhisattva and a Lokapala, are old in their lower portions, while the heads and most of the figures from the waist upwards are modern restorations. Old, too, are the gilt-edged halo and nimbus in low relief behind the Buddha, with dark-green foliage over brown ground. The wall-paintings in the alcove, darkened by incense smoke, include on the ceiling a scene which shows the Buddha teaching in a grove surrounded by celestial attendants. Pale greens and blues prevail in the colour-schemes of this and the small shrines next mentioned. A diaper of roughly stencilled small Buddha figures covers the ceiling of Ch. iii. a, as well as most space on the side walls. The centre, however, of these is occupied by a painted panel nearly 7 feet wide, representing the Western Paradise. The panel on the north wall (Fig. 209) is a composition closely resembling in arrangement and style the Sukhâvati picture on silk, Ch. xlvii. 001,$ but with the addition of a celestial dance at its foot.

Decoration   Ch. Iv, another small shrine, with a cella 15 feet Io inches long and 13 feet 3 inches wide

of shrines and a group of partially old stucco images in an alcove (Fig. 208), is decorated in much the same

Ch. Iv-". style as Cli. III. a. The side walls contain èach a large painted panel showing Sukhâvati scenes. That on the north wall, with a width of 8 feet (Fig. 210), is a typical representation of Amitabha's Paradise, as seen in a large group of our silk paintings.9 Comparison with these makes it easy to recognize in the scenes filling the side panels the story of King Ajata§atru and the Meditations of Queen Vaidehi taken from the Amitâyurdhyâna-sûtra.1Ô The photographs in Figs. 211, 212 show the alcoves, or image recesses, of two more grottoes, Ch. v, vi, which agree in general arrangement with those last described." In Ch. iv little survives of the original statuary beyond the raised lotus seat of the central Buddha and the bases of four attendants on each side ; but the fine cloud scrolls filling the spaces between the flame-bordered haloes and the gracefully designed festoons of lotuses on either side of the alcove opening may be mentioned. The diaper covering the whole of the cella walls is identical with that in Ch. I, showing stencilled rows of seated Buddhas, dark brown with white drapery over a light green ground. Both here and in Ch. vi we meet in the ornamented borders, etc., with floral patterns which have a close resemblance to the designs preserved for us in figured or printed silks from the walled-up chapel. In Ch. vi each of the side walls is decorated mainly with a large panel representing a Western Paradise in simplified form, with legendary scenes on the margins (Fig. 231).

Cella and   The cave-temple Cli. vii, as the plan (Plate 44) shows, has a relatively large cella, about
porccaveh of-temple 38 feet square, approached through a porch which owing to its length, some 27 feet, badly interferes

Ch. vu.   with its lighting. The horseshoe-shaped altar platform is now occupied by three colossal Buddha
statues seated in European fashion and flanked each by a pair of attendant figures. The images are all of clumsy modelling and seemed even in their lower portions to date from some later restoration. The painted decoration of the rock-carved screen behind looked like an inferior imitation of that occupying the same place in Ch. ii. The wall-paintings of the cella resemble in subjects and style those of Ch. viii to be described presently, but appeared to me distinctly less careful in execution and later. On the north and south walls they comprise four large panels with Sukhâvati representations, which texts conspicuously inscribed in the centre are intended to explain. Rows of Bodhisattvas marching in procession and similar to those decorating the porch are depicted on most of the dado, while elsewhere narrow panels, badly faded, show what evidently are Jâtaka stories. The west wall is occupied by a large painted composition (Fig. 213) identical in its

legendary subject with that which covers the corresponding space in the cave Ch. xvi. The walls

• Cf. above, p. 885; also Thousand .Buddhas, Pl. XI.   '0 Cf. below, Descriptive List, Ch. 005 T.

• Cf. above, pp. 885 sqq., and for illustrations, Ch. 00216,   " For ground plans, see PL 44.
  Ch. lviii. oorr in PI. VIII, XXX of Thousand Buddhas.