esoteric buddhism at the crossroads 261
sions of that time.22 A development, which played out in distinctive ways in
the Buddhist communities at Dunhuang as seen in the example given here.23
The other example of a votive painting displaying the integration of dif-
ferent cults of Buddhism can be found in the collection of Musée Guimet.
The painting in question features the Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara seated
above Kṣitigarbha in a double composition, which divides the painting in two
equally large halves.24 This painting does not so much reveal the infestation of
Esoteric Buddhism in the mainstream tradition as showing the proper merger
of two originally distinct cults.25 There are actually antecedents in earlier
Chinese Buddhist art for depictions of Kṣitigarbha and Avalokiteśvara appear-
ing together, but not with the latter in his Thousand-armed form, i.e. no cases
where an Esoteric Buddhist form of Avalokiteśvara occurs. In the case of the
painting from Musée Guimet, which contains a 10th century donor inscription
at the bottom, revealing that the adoration and supplication of both bodhisatt-
vas were intended, we may therefore understand paintings with such dual, cul-
tic function as a reflection of a common trend in which Esoteric Buddhist cults,
especially those devoted to the various forms of Avalokiteśvara, had begun to
gain increasing importance among the Buddhist practitioners in Dunhuang.
As for the impact of Tibetan Buddhist cults on the Buddhist community
at Dunhuang, let us take a look at one illustrative case in what follows. Many
22 See Sørensen, Henrik H., “The Presence of Esoteric Buddhist Elements in Chinese
Buddhism during the Tang,” in Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, ed. Charles
D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen, Richard K. Payne (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 294–303. For another
example of Esoteric Buddhist infiltration into the cult of Bhaiṣajyaguru, see Whitfield,
Roderick, and Farrer Anne, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: Chinese Art from the Silk Route
(London: British Museum Publications, 1990), 85, 88–89. In that case Sūryaprabha and
Candraprabha, the canonically established attendants of the Medicine Buddha, have
been transplanted by Cintāmaṇicakra and Vajragarbha, two major bodhisattvas in the
Esoteric Buddhist tradition—not iconographically, incidentally, but by name only.
23 To my knowledge no example of a corresponding ritual text has so far been found
among the Dunhuang manuscripts, although there are several which features the
entire Buddhist pantheon or parts of it, blending mainstream divinities with distinctly
Esoteric Buddhist ones.
24 Cf. Vandier-Nicolas, Nicole and Hambis Louis, Bannières et peintures de Touen-
Houang:conservées au Musée Guimet, planches, Mission Paul Pelliot 15 (Paris: Musée
Guimet, 1976), 80, pl. 118.
25 For a comprehensive study of the cult of Kṣitigarbha, see Zhiru, Ng, The Making of a
Saviour Bodhisattva Dizang in Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press,
2007). See also Yin Fu 尹富, Zhongguo Dizang xinyang yanjiu 中國地藏信仰研究
[A Study of Kṣitigarbha Faith in China] (Chengdu: Sichuan chuban jituan Bashu shushe,
2009).