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

birds, or evil spirits ; but neither theory has ever seemed satisfactory ; and in the streamers of
the Tun-huang banners, as Mr. Littlejohn perceived, was a much more plausible explanation
of their origin. They are a survival. And other details in the Japanese (originally Chinese)
system of mounting could be explained, he suggested, by a reference to this forgotten origin.

II

The pictorial treasures brought away from Tun-huang by Sir Aurel, and now divided
between the Indian Government and the British Museum, consist of votive paintings (mostly
on silk, though a certain number are on paper) of various sizes, some being as much as six or
seven feet high ; of a long series of small banners on silk and larger banners on linen ; of one
or two magnificent specimens of embroidery, the finest of which is reproduced (Pls. xxxiv and
xxxv) ; of outline drawings, and of woodcuts.
The present publication is intended to illustrate the specimens which have most impor-
tance for the study of Eastern art.
The paintings and drawings, with a few unimportant exceptions, are all of Buddhist
inspiration. At first sight the limitation of scope and the repetition of similar themes may
give an impression of monotony. Closer study reveals a remarkable variety. This variety
is due to differences of style, which are accounted for partly by the different dates, still more by
the different localities at which they were produced, partly by the very varying degrees of
skill in the painters who produced them. Being all found in one place, the paintings might
be supposed to be all the product of a single local school. But this is certainly not the case, as
a brief examination shows at once. There are specimens (of little account as art) which are
purely Indian in style and probably Nepalese ; there are examples of the well-defined
Tibetan type of Buddhist picture ; there are paintings which are entirely Chinese ; and there
are, lastly, a number which contain Indian, Chinese, and possibly Tibetan elements in varying
proportions, but are in an intermediate style and may safely be held to be the product of local
schools of Chinese Turkestān, and of the region which, on the east, joins it to China proper.
Until a few years ago, scarcely anything was known in Europe of Buddhist painting
beyond the famous frescoes of Ajantā in India and Buddhist paintings by Japanese masters,
of which the frescoes in the Horiuji Temple at Nara are among the oldest and most celebrated.
It was known that the Japanese modelled their work closely on Chinese tradition ; and a few
Chinese Buddhist paintings of early periods are preserved in Japan ; but while an extensive
series of ancient Japanese Butsu-yé exists, corresponding specimens from China are very
rare indeed. And if the early Buddhist art of China was little known, still less was known of the
intermediate links in the tradition which passed on from India to China through Turkestān.
But now, through successive explorations and discoveries, the story of Buddhist art and the
phases of its progress eastwards through Asia are fairly plain and familiar. And some of the
most illuminating and important documents have been supplied by the discoveries of Sir
Aurel Stein.
In the paintings with which we are dealing, the Indian element is obviously very strong,
just as 'The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas', where they were found, were hollowed out of
the cliff in obedience to immemorial Indian tradition : we are reminded at once of the
frescoed caves of Ajantā. But there are other elements besides the Indian, as we shall see.
How did Buddhism penetrate into Central Asia? From India proper it travelled by way
of the extreme north-west frontier, the valley of Peshawar, then known as the kingdom of
Gandhāra ; thence to the countries lying north, and so eastwards by the great trade-route
across the desert to China. Gandhāra is the first stage of this long journey : and it was in
Gandhāra that the Buddhist art of the Further East, as we know it, was first formulated.
The now well-known sculptures of Gandhāra, a fine series of which may be seen in the
British Museum, date from about the first century of our era to about the sixth. They
represent a late Hellenistic tradition put to the service of the Indian religion. It was in