The predominant share which the Bodhisattvas claim in popular Buddhist
worship as developed under Mahāyāna influences is illustrated by the
fact that about one-half of our Ch‘ien-fo-tung paintings are devoted
to their representation, whether singly or along with attendant
divinities. However large may be in devout speculation the number
of different Bodhisattvas, popular imagination had already in the
North-Indian home of the Mahāyāna system been concentrated upon a
small select group of Bodhisattvas. Among them Avalokiteśvara, the
Bodhisattva of Mercy, occupies the foremost place, and the frequency
of his representations among our Tun-huang paintings is just as marked
as the popularity of his female manifestation, known to the Chinese as
Kuan-yin, to the Japanese as Kwannon, the Goddess of Pity, is in modern
Buddhist worship throughout the Far East.
The large and fairly well-preserved painting (Ch. xxxviii. 005),
reproduced on the scale of one-third in Plate XV, presents two almost
life-size figures of Avalokiteśvara standing erect and facing each
other. Their outer hands are raised in the _vitarka-mudrā_, while the
Bodhisattva on the left carries in the other hand a yellow flower, and
the one on the right a flask and a willow sprig. These are well-known
attributes of Avalokiteśvara.[35] Which of his many particular forms
are intended may be determined from the inscribed cartouche above, of
which no translation is as yet available.
The figures, drawn with much care and painted in a wealth of harmonious
colours, reflect a certain grandeur of design which breaks through the
hieratic conventions of pose and externals. Except for the oblique eyes
these conventions are all unmistakably Indian in type and origin. But
equally clear is the change, here seen in highly perfected technique,
which their treatment has undergone by the eyes and hands of Chinese
painters. We notice their distinctive touch quite as much in the grace
and dignity of the features as in the mastery of sweeping line with
which the rich robes of the Bodhisattvas are treated. The features are
finely drawn and delicately shaded with pink; the ears are elongated
and show hieratic convention in a particularly striking fashion. The
fine drawing of the shapely hands curiously contrasts with the clumsy
foreshortening of the feet.
Dress, coiffure, and jewellery are of the elaborate style, often
displayed by our Bodhisattva banners;[36] but the ornamentation, though
carefully treated in detail, is not overdone. On the front of the
tiaras is shown Avalokiteśvara’s Dhyāni-buddha, Amitābha. From lotus
buds at their sides descend rainbow-coloured tassels. The garments
comprise shawl-like stoles, lined with light green, under-robes of
Indian red, and long skirts of orange hue. A white girdle is held
round the hips by a jewelled belt; its end hangs down in front of
the skirt and is tied below in a butterfly knot. From a heavy gold
necklet descend jewelled chains, which are gathered together by a
large circular jewel at the waist, and then part again to loop up the
skirt about the knees. A jewelled anklet seems to gather the end of
the under-robe above the feet, and these in either figure are set upon
a pair of open lotuses. On the outer sides of the figures gracefully
drawn flowers and leaves are shown as if floating down gently through
the air.