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0289 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / 289 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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all will provide many a crux for expert authorities on
Buddhist iconography. But even before this detailed
analysis is attempted it is easy to recognize three broad
categories of the divine personages represented—Buddhas,
Bodhisattvas, and Lokapalas or 'Guardians of the Worlds.'

The very small number of pictures showing Gautama
Buddha or corresponding epiphanies in earlier or future
cycles cannot cause surprise; for from an early period
other divine figures claimed far more attention in Buddhist
worship, especially in the Mahayana system which prevailed
from Gandhara right through Central Asia into China.
Its favourite objects were the Bodhisattvas or 'Buddhas
elect' in their inexhaustible multiplicity, and these we
find abundantly represented on our banners. Rich adorn-
ment in dress and jewelry is common to all these princely
incarnations of Buddhas past or future, with the single
exception of Kshitigarbha, who curiously enough figures in
the costume of a monk.

A certain number of the Bodhisattvas are presented in
a style plainly Indian, and can on account of their charac-
teristic emblems and distinctive colours be easily identified
with the miniature figures in certain old Buddhist manu-
scripts from Nepal which M. Foucher first studied and
published. Thus we meet repeatedly with Manjusri on
his lion, Samantabhadra on the elephant, Vajrapani with
the thunderbolt, Maitreya with the rosary, and other well-
known creations of Buddhist imagery. Even more fre-
quent are representations of Avalokitesvara, whom Chinese
Buddhism has gradually transformed into Kuan-yin, its
much-beloved 'Goddess of Mercy.' In all these the faith-
ful adherence to the style in pose, features, and drapery,
as originally fixed by Graeco-Buddhist art, is obvious.
This tenacity of traditional type is a familiar feature in the
iconography of all religions. All the more interesting are
those numerous banners in which the representation of
Bodhisattvas has undergone unmistakable adaptation to
new standards developed in the later Buddhist art of
Central Asia, or quite plainly to Chinese taste.

From the artistic point of view these latter pictures of
Bodhisattvas are often distinctly superior in design and