Using textual sources and visual evidence gathered in Central Asia and in China proper, this article addresses the following issues: the Central Asian origin of the Cosmological Buddha as Śākyamuni – specifically in the northern Kingdom of Kuča and not southern Khotan; the process of acculturation which intervened when in the late 5th century the image was transmitted to China where it was transformed from the original Cosmological Śākyamuni into a Cosmological Vairocana; the Tang period as the golden age of this iconography in the Dunhuang caves; and, in concluding, the simultaneous presence of two identities – a Cosmological Śākyamuni and a Cosmological Vairocana – as the teaching of the Da fangbian Fo baoenjing or Sūtra of the Buddha Repaying [his Parents’] Kindness with Great Skillful Means joined the Huayanjing or Flower Garland Scripture.
目次
The Central Asian stage of the Cosmological Buddha – its doctrinal and visual origins 182 The Chinese stage of the Cosmological Buddha identified as Vairocana 193 The evolution of the Cosmological Vairocana in Dunhuang during the Tang Dynasty 198 The coexistence of two images: a traditional Śākyamuni and a Cosmological Śākyamuni based on the Baoenjing Sūtra 202 References 208 Primary sources 208 Secondary sources 208
