From Dhāraṇĭ to Maṇḍala

Description

This dissertation is an examination of esoteric Buddhist art in China, and in particular, a study of the dialogue between the verbal, the visual, and the spatial within esoteric Buddhist practice. From the beginning, esoteric Buddhism in China was characterized by the use of verbal incantations called variously, dharan[dotbelow]i or mantra. Although the efficacy of dharan[dotbelow] i was in theory predicated merely upon their recitation by devotees, during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), their materialization in painted, printed, and sculptural forms grew in number. This dissertation thus takes as a starting point the implications of pictorializing the verbal in devotional art. Moreover, the relationship between these pictorialized dharan[dotbelow] i and the more complex visual forms known as man[dotbelow]d[dotbelow]alas, spatialized representations of Buddhist deities and cosmology, is explored. A key issue is the relationship between Buddhist ritual, which was enacted through the use of verbal incantations and ritual altars, and the process of visual representation. My dissertation contends that although man[dotbelow]d[dotbelow]alas were introduced into dharan[dotbelow]i rituals in China during the 7 th century, it was not until the following century that monks of Indian and Central Asian origin introduced esoteric Buddhist rituals which incorporated the practice of the visualization of Buddhist deities, thus setting the stage for visual representation, and in particular, painted images. Prior to this, dharan[dotbelow] is had taken material form primarily as dharan[dotbelow] i pillars, stone pillars upon whose surfaces the text of dh aran[dotbelow]i su tras were carved. At the same time, man[dotbelow]d[dotbelow]alas had previously been commonly understood as altars rather than as images. It was the introduction of visualization practices to Buddhist rituals that set the stage for the production of man[dotbelow]d[dotbelow]alas as painted images. My dissertation focuses on the late 9 th -early 10 th century paintings of Mogao Cave 14 as well as portable paintings and diagrams from the Dunhuang and Xi'an areas, examined in conjunction with Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang and Buddhist texts in the received Sino-Japanese canon. Rather than studying images merely for their functional aspect during rituals, my dissertation considers the dialogue between the orality and visuality of ritual, visual representation, and space.

Subjects