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

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the Hina äna school and were replaced by a more modern composition appro-

priate th   y   - ,- development, or, again, to make

riate to the superior claims of the Mahayana develop   g ,

p   p

room for ag

cture p i   to gratify a generous donor. This is pure supposition. The

useful deduction is that these palimpsests help to support the assumption of a

considerable period of development of the art.

Theg

P aintin s represented by the accompanying reproductions are selections

from those recovered by Sir Aurel Stein during his several expeditions into

Chinese Turkestán in the years 1900-16. They may be conveniently grouped

geographically under two heads; those from sites to the south of the great Takla-

makán Desert and those from the north. Within the first of these groups are sites

lying along the old Silk Route between China and the West, Farhad-Bég-yailaki,

Balawaste, Khádalik, and Miran. The sites on the `Route of the North' are Kara-

khöja, Toyuk, and Bezeklik, all in the Turfán district.' Chronologically the paint-

ings extend over a period of several centuries. Period, locality, racial complexities,

theological and ritualistic divergencies have impressed their varied influences on

subject, mode of expression, and craftsmanship.

Well-defined styles mark respectively predominant Indian and Chinese inspira-

tion. Others combine in varying degree the influences of both. South of the desert

where Indian qualities predominate Persian influence intrudes. In the north,

Chinese characteristics are modified by Tibetan, Uigur, and perhaps others. The

factor common to all the compositions, although variously expressed, is the

Buddhist legend; but the rich possibilities offered by Hindu and Tantric importa-

tions stimulated the imagination of Chinese and Tibetan artists, who were

probably more concerned with the stronger attraction of the decorative possibili-

ties than with the spiritual sense which inspired the earlier Indian renderings.

While all are linked together by the common bond of one basic religion the

manner of expression differs widely. Examination of the great mass of mural

paintings brought to light by Grünwedel, von Lecoq, Stein, Pelliot, and other

archaeologists in the course of their investigations of the many Buddhist shrines

surviving in Chinese Turkestán reveals a bewildering diversity of style and

treatment. This is not surprising having regard to the complex social and political

conditions prevailing in that region during theeriod covered by the existing

P   y

examples of painting roughly, seven centuries and even long before. The

dominant power had passed from one   g

P   p   e to another of races differing in ideals and

I See Sketch Map, plate D.

XViii