One of the most important themes in Pan-Asian Buddhist art, a nirvana image entails a reclining buddha figure surrounded by a group of mourners. The configuration purportedly represents the moment when the Buddha Sakyamuni entered nirvana, or a state of ultimate release from the world of transmigration. This image of transition embodies the highest spiritual ideal in Buddhism, as well as an inherent ambiguity in representation which sets it apart from all other Buddha images. The theme of the Buddha's equivocation between presence and absence, not seeing and being seen, found a ready audience in medieval China of the fifth to ninth centuries. In refashioning the nirvana image into a pictorial sign commensurate with localized needs, Chinese image-makers and patrons initiated a pivotal transformation in the motif's iconography, function, and intention. The results in turn registered profound changes in contemporary artistic practices, religious devotionalism and political authority. The dissertation is the first comprehensive study of nirvana imagery in this crucial period of development.
