Section 3. The Compassion of the Bodhisattva
The essence of Mahāyāna Buddhism is altruism and the central figure is the bodhisattva, who vows to liberate all sentient beings from suffering. Among the many bodhisattvas, the largest followings and the most statues belong to Maitreya, Buddha of the Future, and Avalokiteśvara, bodhisattva of compassion. Their statues have also enjoyed popularity for the longest time and over the greatest area. As Buddhism spread, bodhisattva cults became intertwined with local cultures and new iconographies emerged, such as China’s Guanyin of Fertility and the Kingdom of Dali’s Yizhang Guanyin, which were distinct from those of Indian Buddhism.
Bodhisattva Maitreya, Pakistan (Ancient Gandhāra), Kuṣāṇa dynasty (1st century-320), 3rd century. Schist. Height: 168.5 cm. © National Palace Museum
Gandhāra is the name for a historical region that covered parts of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Gandhāran art is strongly influenced by the Hellenistic cultural tradition that was established with the conquests of Alexander the Great, the heyday of which coincided in large part with the rule of the Kuṣāṇa dynasty. This bodhisattva has carefully defined facial features and wavy shoulder-length locks. He wears a shawl, a dhotī (waist cloth), and sumptuous jewelry. The realistically modeled body is strong and upright.
The gesture of fearlessness and the sacred water flask identify this figure as Maitreya, Buddha of the Future. The many similar extant statues dating from the Kuṣāṇa period attest to Maitreya’s popularity at that time.
Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara Acuoye, Dali Kingdom (Yunnan, 937-1254), First half of 12th century. Gilt-bronze. Height: 52.5 cm. Gift of Mr. Peng Kai-dong. © National Palace Museum
Legend has it that Avalokiteśvara Acuoye manifested as an Indian monk and arrived in Yunnan to aid the establishment of Nanzhao. Avalokiteśvara Acuoye was thus the most venerated deity in Nanzhao and the Kingdom of Dali, and the cult is unique to Yunnan in China.
This gilt-bronze bodhisattva wears a tall crown with a miniature seated Buddha. The ear pendants are similar to those of the standing Avalokiteśvara Yizhang (Pl. 61). The facial shape and features are characteristic of Southeast Asian peoples. The posture is rigid and the body is modeled thin and flat. The torso is naked and adorned with jewelry, and the long skirt is secured with an ornate sash. The origin of these features can be traced back to statues made in Indo-China. This work is very similar to the Avalokiteśvara Acuoye statue commissioned by Emperor Duan Zhengxing (r. 1147-1172), currently in the San Diego Museum of Art in the United States, and probably dates from the same period.
Section 4. Transmission and Transformation of the Buddhist Scriptures
In ancient India, the teachings of Buddha were passed down orally in the beginning, but later on, in order to preserve the teachings of lineages or to facilitate the spreading of Buddhism to other cultural areas in Asia, the Buddhist scriptures were written or inscribed in different languages and scripts. For example, Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit, Pāli, Chinese, or Tibetan represent the various distinctive Buddhist cultures. Similarly, other Buddhist texts, like the Manchu Buddhist canon or the Burmese palm-leaf manuscripts, started to appear in certain local cultural areas, and this also contributed to the diversity of Buddhist scriptures. This section features a variety of Buddhist texts in the National Palace Museum’s collection. Some are the xylograph editions, others hand-written manuscripts. They are not only in different languages but also the framing styles are diverse, depending on their origins in various space and time.
Kangxi Manuscript Kangyur in Tibetan Script, Qing dynasty (1644-1911), completed 1669. Gold ink on indigo paper; Wood planks with gold, pigment and gems. Page size: 33 x 87.5 cm. © National Palace Museum
Kangyur, literally meaning “the translation of the Buddha’s words”, is a Tibetan Buddhist canon that consists of scriptures of sūtra and vinaya (monastic codes). The compilation was commissioned by the Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, grandmother of Emperor Kangxi. The project started in the sixth year of the Kangxi era and was completed two years later, in 1669. This manuscript used to be housed in Xianruo Guan in the Forbidden City. It is the most magnificent of the many Kangyur manuscripts transcribed during the Qing dynasty and also the one that receives the most attention.
This voluminous collection of manuscripts has the same order and divisions as the Yongle Kangyur, completed in Nanjing in the eighth year of the Yongle era in the Ming dynasty (1410). The collection is divided into six parts by order of importance: Tantra (esoteric teachings), Prajñāpāramitā (perfection of wisdom), Ratnakūṭa (accumulation of jewels), Avataṃsaka (flower ornament), Mdo sde (miscellaneous Sūtra), and Vinaya (monastic codes). A total of 1,057 Buddhist texts are included in the manuscript.
Each volume measures 87.5 cm in length and 33 cm in width and contains 300 to 500 leaves. The collection consists of Tibetan script in gold ink on the unique Tibetan Blue Paper (mthing shog). The inner front and back protective cover planks are decorated with seven polychrome painted Buddhist miniatures and inlaid with jewelry, covered by protective curtains embroidered in five colors—red, blue, green, white, and yellow. A piece of silk khata is placed on the wrapped manuscript, then wrapped by three cloths: a piece of plain yellow silk, a piece of yellow wadded cloth, and then a double-layered yellow satin woven with flower patterns. After bundling by a seven-toned wadded bundling strap, the whole set is further sandwiched by two outer protective cover planks, then bound by a five-toned bundling strap, and finally wrapped with a yellow wadded quilt.
The In-between Layer of the Double-layered Yellow Wrapping Satin Woven with Flower Patterns: Gold-embroidered Yellow Satin Featuring coiled Dragons with Patterns of Ruyi, Clouds, and Flowers. Accessory to the Kangxi Manuscript Kangyur in Tibetan Script, Volume “Tha”. Silk, 194 x 203.4 cm. © National Palace Museum
Each volume of the Tibetan script Kangxi Kangyur is wrapped in four layers of wrapping cloths. This piece, the third layer, is made of layers of silk fabrics and comes with a seven-toned bundling strap that is 485 cm long and 6.5 cm wide. The top layer of the wrapping cloth is a piece of plain woven yellow silk fabric. The middle layer is a yellow silk fabric decorated with a total of seven coiled dragons in three rows, each embroidered in gold thread and surrounded by an exquisite frame of colorful cloud patterns. The bottom layer is a silk fabric decorated with straw yellow plum blossoms and magnolias.
The wrapping cloth and the Kangyur five-colored curtains were made at the commission of Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang by three weaving bureaus in southern China between the sixth and the eighth year of the Kangxi reign. This piece belongs to the Tha case of the manuscript.
Section 5. The Mystery of Esoteric Buddhism
Esoteric Buddhism marked the last phase of Buddhism’s development in India. As a way to compete with Hinduism, during this period Buddhism absorbed elements such as traditional mantras, mandalas, and burnt offerings, and multi-faced and multi-armed, wrathfull, and female deity statues started to appear in large numbers.
Tantra, or Buddhist scriptures on esoteric practices, can be divided into four classes according to their time and contents: Kriya Tantra, Carya Tantra, Yoga Tantra, and Anuttarayoga Tantra. Anuttarayoga Tantra can be further divided into Method-father Tantra and Wisdom-mother Tantra. Esoteric Buddhism practiced during the Tang Dynasty in China and in Japan mainly focused on Carya Tantra and Yoga Tantra, whereas Tibet followed the Anuttarayoga Tantra tradition. Esoteric Buddhist art is rich in contents and diverse in style.
Triad of Vairocana, Four-armed Lokeśvara, and Prajñāpāramitā, Thailand or Cambodia Khmer Empire (802-1432), Late 12th-early 13th century. Gilt-bronze Height: 22 cm. Gift of Mr. Peng Kai-dong. © National Palace Museum
This triad is in a style typical of the Khmer Empire (802-1431). The Buddha in the middle performs the gesture of meditation and is seated on the coils of a seven-headed serpent whose hoods form a canopy. The two attendants are Four-armed Lokeśvara and Prajñāpāramitā.
This iconography used to be attributed to the story of the Buddha and Mucalinda the serpent king, as related in Theravāda Buddhist texts such as the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra. However, recent studies suggest that the central seated figure is the Vairocana Buddha, venerated in the esoteric tradition, and that the iconography may relate to the spread of the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha tantra in Khmer from the 10th century on. The fact that the two attendant figures are also Esoteric Buddhist deities lends support to this theory.
Knife Mahākāla, Central Tibet; Densatil style Ming dynasty (1368-1644), 14th-15th century. Gilt-copper with semiprecious stones and pigment. Height: 32.6 cm.Gift of Mr. Peng Kai-dong. © National Palace Museum
This one-headed, two-armed Mahākāla holds a flaying knife (Skr. kartrika) in the raised right hand and a blood-filled skull cup (kapala) in the left. He stands with the right leg bent and the left straight, and has three staring eyes, bared fangs, a curled tongue, and moustaches and hair that flow upwards. The stocky deity wears a crown of five dry human skulls, a necklace of fifty wet heads, and a tiger-skin skirt.
This richly gilded statue is inlaid with gemstones of various colors, and the splendid style is characteristic of the statues at Densatil (Tib. gDan sa mthil) monastery in central Tibet. The monastery was founded in 1158 by Phagmo Drupa Dorje gyalpo (Phag mo gru pa rDo rje rgyal po, 1110-1170) and received long-term support from the Lang (rLangs) family, who defeated the Sakya (Sa skyas) in the mid- 14th century to become the most powerful regime in Tibet.
Durgā Mahiṣāsuramardinī, Northeastern India or Bangladesh, Pāla dynasty (750-1199), 12th century. Copper with traces of gilding. Height: 38.5 cm. © National Palace Museum
Durgā in Sanskrit means “hard to approach”. She is the wrathful manifestation of Pārvatī, the consort of Śiva, and the most important deity of the Śaktist school. Followers of the school believe that Śakti (the primordial cosmic energy) is Brahma (the energy that brings the universe into existence).
This work depicts the story of ten-armed Durgā slaying the demon buffalo. While the severed buffalo head lies on the pedestal, the true demon-an asura-springs forth from the wound. Durgā’s left leg tramples the buffalo’s body and one of her main hands grabs the asura, while the other transfixes him with a trident.
The polygonal pedestal, boat-shaped mandorla, and flames in serrated patterns are characteristic of statuary of the late Pāla dynasty (750-1199). This work exhibits impressive dynamism and power.