The scenes reproduced here, on half the scale of the original, are
taken from the top and bottom portions of a large and well-preserved
silk painting (Ch. lviii. 001) of Maitreya’s Paradise. For a
reproduction of the whole picture and for its special points of
iconographic interest, as the only representation in our Collection of
that famous Tuṣita Heaven in which the future Buddha of the present
world period is supposed to reside, a reference to _Serindia_ must
suffice here.[11] The Chinese inscriptions which render the attribution
of this Paradise to Maitreya certain (even though the Bodhisattva
appears in it as a Buddha, a status which he is yet to attain) are
taken from the text of the _Maitreya-vyākaraṇa-sūtra_ and accompany
legendary scenes shown in the top corners and along the bottom of
the painting. These scenes, as seen in our Plate, are not formally
separated from the Paradise proper, but merge into it at the bottom and
are above only divided from it by a range of pine-clad mountains.
The inscriptions and the legendary scenes to which they refer were to
have been interpreted in MM. Petrucci and Chavannes’ separate volume in
the _Mémoires concernant l’Asie orientale_.[12] The materials prepared
for it by those lamented collaborators are not at present accessible
to me, and in the absence of textual guidance the descriptive notes
on the scenes must here be brief. In the scene above on the right we
see three men in Chinese magisterial costume seated along a table on
a terrace, while before them two men stand right and left of a large
disc, provided with a tripod (?) and suggesting a metal mirror into
which a third smaller figure appears to gaze. To the left, between two
inscribed cartouches, are shown three men seated behind a table, the
centre one being on a lotus seat. Their head-dress is the same black
hat with broad flaps sticking out sideways which is worn by the three
seated figures to the right and which, as stated above, is always found
in the representations of donors on our tenth-century paintings.[13]
Still further to the left is depicted a husbandman in lobed and tailed
cap, driving a plough before which are harnessed a dark bull or cow and
a smaller whitish animal of the bovine species, apparently reluctant to
move on.
In the left corner scene we see a personage in official dress seated
on a small platform or throne before the gate of what seems to
represent a walled palace. To the left of him a demon-like figure is
shown striding, while on the right he is being approached by a group
comprising a Buddha and two smaller figures of monkish disciples. A
little to the right of this group stands a layman in adoring pose;
above the whole there appears a dragon-like monster descending on a
cloud. In the background to the right within the arched opening of
a reed hut is seen a pair, apparently man and wife, seated on a low
platform before which stands erect a lady wearing the wide-sleeved
dress and the elaborate coiffure familiar from the donatrices of our
tenth-century pictures.[14]
If the significance and interrelation of the top scenes at present
escapes us we have less difficulty about the general interpretation of
those at the bottom of the picture. On the right and left the scenes
placed below the flanking terraces of the Paradise manifestly show
conversions to the Buddhist Law. On the right is seen a personage
elaborately dressed and obviously of high rank, who is seated upright
on a square platform, with feet on a footstool, undergoing tonsure by
a monk. Four men in secular costume, holding rolls of paper in their
hands, stand behind him. Three others attend in front, one of them
holding a wide dish to receive the cut hair and a second carrying
a vase. In the background stands a groom holding three elaborately
caparisoned horses. Their figures are well drawn with elegant small
heads, broad shapely breasts, and slim legs. Two are white and one red.
Their type closely recalls the present Badakhshī breed of Western
Turkestān, a favourite region for China’s horse imports since early
times; it is exactly represented also among the numerous clay figures
of horses which in 1915 I excavated in plenty from Turfān graves of the
T‘ang period. The saddles, high-pommeled at back and front, and covered
with long saddle-cloths, are met with there also. For the ornamentation
of headstall, breast-band, and crupper, reference to a painted panel
from Dandān-oilik showing a horseman and also of the T‘ang period is
instructive.[15]
The scene on the left forms an exact pendant to the one just described.
Here a lady similarly placed and attired is having her head shaved by a
monk. Among the attendants behind her two ladies have their hair done
in topknots with two high loops, whereas two others, evidently girls,
wear it in a bunch on either side of the head with a short lock hanging
from each. Behind appear bearers of the hexagonal palanquin with pagoda
roof, of which a small portion is included in the reproduction.
The central scene shows the adorning of a Stūpa or Buddhist relic
tower and presents points of distinct antiquarian interest. Its
shape is cylindrical, with a low flat dome and a square base below.
A three-tiered umbrella, hung with streamers and metal ornaments,
surmounts it. Below workmen are seen engaged in arranging the
draperies. Two long tables are laden with flasks, bowls, and other
offerings, while bundles of manuscript rolls are placed at either side;
they are all likely to represent votive gifts made at the time of
consecration.