The first two plates reproduce portions, on half the scale of the
original, from the right and left of a large painting on silk (Ch. lii.
003), remarkable for its noble design, the delicacy of its drawing,
and its glowing colours. In spite of the damage it has suffered along
its sides and bottom (see _Serindia_, Pl. LVII) it still measures
close on seven feet in height and over five and a half feet across.
It represents a Buddhist Paradise and, according to M. Petrucci’s
interpretation, the one presided over by Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Buddha
of Medicine, whose cult since an early period has been widespread in
Northern Buddhism from Tibet to Japan. His Heaven is placed in the
East by sacred texts preserved in the Chinese Tripiṭaka. In their
descriptions as well as in our painting Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise shares
the essential features of that still more popular abode of Buddhist
bliss, the Western Paradise, or _Sukhāvatī_, presided over by the
Buddha Amitābha. Of this the ‘Caves of the Thousand Buddhas’ have
preserved numerous representations both among the pictures recovered
from the walled-up chapel (see Pls. VI–VIII, X–XI) and among the mural
paintings decorating the temples. But the legendary scenes occupying
the side panels of our painting and connected with Bhaiṣajyaguru are
different, and so are also certain details in the arrangement and
personnel of the main subject. These distinctive features are found
again in another somewhat less elaborate picture of Bhaiṣajyaguru’s
Paradise, reproduced in Plate XXXVI.
His Heaven presents itself in our picture, as in all the large Paradise
paintings of Tun-huang, as a great assemblage of celestial beings,
elaborately staged on richly decorated terraces and courts which rise
above a lotus lake. On the sides and behind the terraces there are seen
pavilions and elaborate structures of characteristically Chinese style,
representing the heavenly mansions. It is in this sumptuous setting
that Chinese Buddhism has visualized from an early period the idea of
a Paradise where the souls of believers in the Law may be reborn, free
from all taint, in the buds of the lotus lake to enjoy thereafter for
aeons, or in popular belief for ever, blissful rest and pleasures in
the company of Bodhisattvas, Arhats, and other beatified personalities.
The scheme of the whole, as in all representations of Buddhist Heavens
among the Tun-huang paintings, is ordered on the strictly symmetrical
lines of a ‘Maṇḍala’, buildings, trees, groups, and even individual
figures balancing each other on either side of the picture and all
centring round the presiding Buddha in the middle.
Here we see Bhaiṣajyaguru seated with folded legs and wearing a crimson
mantle over a green under-robe. While his right hand is raised as usual
in the _vitarka-mudrā_, the left holds the begging bowl in his lap.
Behind him a couple of flowering trees support a hexagonal canopy of
red drapery. A halo and nimbus of manifold but harmoniously blended
colours surround the Buddha’s figure, which in pose and dress and
in the features of the mild pensive face bears the impress of the
type first evolved in Graeco-Buddhist art even more clearly than the
figures of the surrounding Bodhisattvas. Of these the two enthroned are
identified by M. Petrucci with Mañjuśrī on the right and Samantabhadra
on the left. Above these two chief Bodhisattvas rise six-tiered
umbrellas wreathed in clouds, about which float gracefully poised
figures of Apsaras. The rich flowing garments, which include shawl-like
stoles, and the abundant jewelled ornaments of the two are shared also
by other haloed figures obviously meant for Bodhisattvas, who appear in
attendance on the central Buddha or in varying supple poses occupy the
fore portion of the terrace. The features of all are drawn with extreme
delicacy and pleasing variety of expression, the eyes being in many
cases almost straight, while the flesh is white, with shading in tints
of pink.
By the side of either of the enthroned Bodhisattvas there is seen a
composite group of divinities, unhaloed and five on each side, of
types not ordinarily met with among the attendants in these Paradise
pictures. Three figures in each group are warrior kings, recalling the
Lokapālas, or Guardians of the Four Regions (see Pls. XLV, XLVII),
by their gorgeous armour and head-dresses. The features of most of
them are grotesque, and this aspect of their appearance is enhanced
by the animal figures, including a dragon, gryphon, phoenix, and
peacock, which are shown rising above their shoulders or elsewhere
in conjunction with them. Each group includes the figure of a demon
closely resembling those which are usually met with in the _cortège_ of
Lokapālas (see Pls. XXVI, XLV). The demon on the right raises a naked
infant on his hand, just as the demon in the fragmentary painting of
Plate XLVI. Immediately behind the enthroned Buddha on the left is seen
a youthful personage wearing what looks like a magistrate’s head-dress,
while the corresponding position on the right is occupied by a warrior
with three faces. Perhaps he represents Brahman and the former divinity
Indra.
Before the central Buddha and in the middle of the picture is seen a
large platform projecting from the main terrace and carrying a draped
altar with sacred vessels. On either side of it kneel two unhaloed
figures in graceful poses holding up offerings and suggesting nymphs.
Projecting still further into the foreground is a smaller platform,
and on it a dancer performs in rapid movement to the strains of an
orchestra of eight seated musicians. The dancing figure, unmistakably
that of a girl, is dressed in a billowy orange skirt tied round the
hips and a close-fitting crimson jacket reaching only to the waist and
surmounted by a metal-bound plastron. Her head and arms are richly
adorned with jewellery. From behind the neck issues a long narrow stole
which her hands wave as she dances. The figures of the musicians, four
on each side, resemble those of Bodhisattvas in features and dress, but
the shawl-like stoles over the shoulders are absent. Those to the left
play on a harp, two lutes, and a psaltery, while those to the right
play on clappers, flute, Chinese reed-organ, and pipe. The instruments,
of which several have their ancient Japanese counterparts among the
treasures of the Shōsōin collection (see _Shōsōin Catalogue_, i. Pls.
56, 60), have been fully described in Miss Schlesinger’s expert notes
in Appendix _K_ to _Serindia_.
At the head of each line of musicians there is seen in the background
a small but very curious figure, that of a fat half-naked infant
violently dancing and playing, the one to the left on a narrow-waisted
drum, the one to the right apparently on castanets. Judging from other
Paradise pictures we may assume that these playing infants represent
newly reborn souls who in the joy of their celestial childhood have
been drawn to join the happy scene of music and dancing.
A kind of gangway projects in front of the dancer’s platform into
the lotus lake, and at its entrance stands a Garuḍa with widespread
wings, playing on cymbals. From the lake rise trees and purple or
scarlet lotus buds and flowers, the latter supporting souls reborn.
Two of these, at the extreme right and left, are sitting upright as
fully developed Bodhisattvas, but with a languid air of newly awakened
consciousness. Two others, faintly visible in the foreground, are
represented as naked infants just springing to life or still curled up
in sleep. A rock on the left at the bottom edge of the lake is occupied
by a crane; its pendant on the right, a peacock, falls outside the
reproduction in Plate II.
The bottom corners of the Paradise are filled by the twelve armed
Kings, the generals of Bhaiṣajyaguru, who act as protectors of the Law.
They kneel six a side upon small terraces with gangways sloping down
into the lake. They are treated in appearance and dress like Lokapālas,
but carry no distinctive weapons. Their hands are joined in adoration
or else hold sacred vessels, jewels, &c.
Turning to the sides of the picture, we see the main terrace flanked
by two-storied pavilions, both of distinctively Chinese architecture,
and close by them trees carrying rich foliage but no flowers. The
upper chambers of the pavilions are open and show small Bodhisattvas
sitting on railings, pulling up reed-blinds or otherwise enjoying their
leisured life. The lower chambers contain only unoccupied lotus seats
and appear to have just been abandoned by two subsidiary Buddhas, who
are represented as advancing, each with two attendant Bodhisattvas, on
to projecting wings of the main terrace. The dress of the subsidiary
Buddhas is exactly that of the presiding Bhaiṣajyaguru, of whom M.
Petrucci takes them to be repetitions, and the expression of their
faces is similarly mild and pensive.
The marginal scenes, of which Plate I shows the better preserved ones
on the right side, have been identified by M. Petrucci as representing
incidents of the legend of Bhaiṣajyaguru’s last incarnation as a
Bodhisattva. Without reference to the text of the Chinese Tripiṭaka
which records this legend, but of which the translation prepared by
M. Petrucci is not at present accessible, no interpretation of the
different scenes can be attempted here. Judging from the inscribed
cartouches, at least five scenes are represented in the predella
portion actually reproduced in our Plate. That the treatment of the
figures, the dresses, the landscape is in purely Chinese style is
an observation uniformly applying to all side scenes to be found in
‘Maṇḍala’ pictures from the ‘Thousand Buddhas’, as well as to the
banners representing episodes from Gautama Buddha’s life-story (see
Pls. XII, XIII, XXXVII). Mr. Binyon in his Introductory Essay (see
above, p. 7) has discussed different possible explanations of the
striking assertion of Chinese style and feeling in these scenes. Here
it may suffice to draw attention to the skill with which the rapid
movement of the animal figures appearing in our scenes is rendered,
and to the clever use, observed elsewhere also, which is made of hill
ranges and similar landscape features for dividing the several scenes
into clearly marked compartments without sacrificing the effect of the
whole as a connected story.
A combination of special qualities renders this painting of
Bhaiṣajyaguru’s Paradise one of the most impressive pictures in the
Collection and proves it to be from the hand of a master. As Mr. Binyon
happily puts it, we see in it ‘delicate expressiveness of drawing
combined with a glowing animation of varied colour.... The artist has
been able to control his complex material and multitude of forms into
a wonderful harmony, without any restlessness or confusion; and we are
taken into an atmosphere of strange peace which yet seems filled with
buoyant motion and floating strains of music.’