In a previous paper entitled "Origin and mounting of painted banners from Dunhuang" we endeavour to trace the formation of the different kinds of Buddhist banners and removable paintings from their origin. The purpose of the present study is to find out what should have been the use of these different categories of objects. Numerous litterary sources attest the important place bestowed to banners and removable paintings during Buddhist ceremonies. In the most of them, the difference between the aniconic banners and streamers and the painted images is emphasized. The first are regarded as objects to honour the Buddha and adorn his stûpa, the second are used for the cult and religious ceremonies. So the apparent contradiction between the prohibition to offer their image to the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas and the numerous removable paintings representing them seems solved. The prohibition concerns only the banners with a figure but not the aniconic streamers or "five coloured banners." An important part of the paintings recovered at Dunhuang are dedicatory paintings and banners, they have unquestionably close links with the funerary cults. In the course of their evolution, the great thematic paintings as the oblong iconographic banners became major components of the Buddhist esoteric ritual.
