The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate the vitality and diversity of Chinese Buddhist art in China from the tenth to fourteenth centuries through a close examination of images from the Buddhist cave site Feilaifeng [Peak that Flew in (from India)] located in the Hangzhou area in Zhejiang (southeast China). Feilaifeng includes more than 300 Buddhist images from the Five Dynasties period (907-960), and the Song (960-1279), and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties. This site is notable for these high-quality sculptures, informative dated inscriptions, and patronage by a variety of people, including high-ranking religious and secular officials. The site is also distinguished by its mix of Han and Tibetan sculptural styles created under the rule of Mongols. Despite their undeniable value, these rock-cut works have not been comprehensively studied and published. This richly illustrated thesis is the first to widely explore in depth the artistic, religious, and historical significance of remarkable Feilaifeng images and place them in context with contemporary Buddhist arts from other areas. This project consists of an inventory, description, and an iconographic and stylistic analysis of the sculptures at Feilaifeng. The author traces the sources of the images' iconography and explores their functions by examining inscriptions on the cliffs as well as textual sources, using Buddhist Sutras, official histories, gazetteers, collected works of Chinese scholars, and Tibetan histories that have been translated into Chinese. To explore the distinctive characteristics of these sculptures, the author compares images at Feilaifeng with contemporary images in other regions of China. The study also corrects the problematic points of previous publications on some issues, such as identifying subjects, dating images, explaining iconographic and stylistic characteristics. The author clarifies the role of Hangzhou in the history of Buddhist art during an often-neglected period (post-Tang [618-907]). During these subsequent periods, there were several regional centers for Buddhist art in China, including Hangzhou, which had a strong impact on contemporary and later Buddhist art. This thesis illuminates the role of Hangzhou in post-Tang Buddhist art by investigating the Buddhist imagery from Feilaifeng, the most important and largest extant site in the area. The project thus is an essential contribution to our understanding of post-Tang Buddhist art as a whole.
