Thousand-armed Mañjuśrī; Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara; Mañjuśrī Avalokiteśvara; Mt. Wutai; Dunhuang; Mogao caves; mural painting; Buddhist painting; Buddhist art; esoteric Buddhism; Huayan Buddhism
摘要
The Thousand-armed Mañjuśrī is an enigmatic form of the bodhisattva that appeared primarily in the Mogao cave shrines in northwestern China. There, the deity was nearly always paired with the Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara on opposite walls or on opposite sides of a doorway. Curiously, this pairing is absent from any of the Buddhist sutras associated with the two. This article argues that texts were a starting point rather than an end point for the establishment of the Thousand-armed Mañjuśrī's iconographic characteristics, and that the pairing of the two deities is crucial for understanding the gaps between the deity's textual description and its visual representation.
目次
Abstract 81 KEYWORDS 81 Introduction 81 Mañjuśrī as Paired and Independent Deity 84 The Creation of the Thousand-armed Mañjuśrī 87 Paired Images and Borrowed Iconography 88 Convergences: Bodhisattva Cults and Savior Deities 96 Conclusion 99 Notes 99
