216 richard d. mcbride ii
1948; Yü 2001). All are closely associated to the cultic practices of
making images, sūtra-chanting, and dhāraṇīs. Many of these forms
appear earliest in the art and texts of Dunhuang.
Because Arthur Waley held the view that the dhāraṇī did not become
associated with tantric or esoteric Buddhism until the eighth century,
he preferred to categorize the imagery, texts, and cults associated with
Avalokiteśvara and other bodhisattvas represented in the caves from
the fifth to eighth centuries as “Dhāraṇī Buddhism” (1931, xiii–xiv).
Waley’s view represents a minority opinion, however, and much fur-
ther research is required on the topic. And while modern scholars
classify these forms of Avalokiteśvara as “esoteric” or “tantric” Bud-
dhist, Chinese Buddhists who invoked the bodhisattva in these forms
prior to the late eighth or ninth centuries did not think of themselves
as necessarily participating in a separate tradition of “esoteric” Bud-
dhism, even when modern commentators classify them as such (Abé
1999, 157–163). Strickmann, following the Shingon sectarian Ōmura
Seigai, considered the ritual procedures dealing with several forms
of Avalokiteśvara as indicative of proto-tantra or esoteric Buddhism.
More research needs to be done on such texts as the Dhāraṇī Collec-
tion (Tuoluoni ji jing , T. 901; Ōmura 1918, 2:212–255;
Strickmann 1996, 73–87). While it provides an early Indian approach
to forms of Avalokiteśvara, the work is only found in Chinese.
Furthermore, the cult of Avalokiteśvara as it developed in China
does not mirror the texts and is not at all clear in its development.
Calling upon Avalokiteśvara, intoning or chanting his name, became
one of the most powerful and widespread dhāraṇīs in medieval Sin-
itic Buddhism. Avalokiteśvara, in the bodhisattva’s various forms, was
propitiated and invoked for protection, wish-fulfillment, and abso-
lution of sins in non-esoteric and nontantric Buddhism rituals long
before putatively “orthodox” tantric Buddhism entered China dur-
ing the eighth century (Fayuan zhulin 60, T. 2122.53:736c10–737c10;
Rhi 1982; Kamata 1986; McBride 2005; Shioiri 2007). Regardless,
the worship of Avalokiteśvara began to accelerate and blossom dur-
ing the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, probably because these
forms were linked to increasingly popular dhāraṇī ritual procedures
that invoked the bodhisattva for protection and blessings (Stein 1986;
von Glahn 2004, 130–179; McBride 2008, 62–85). The most relevant
studies in Western languages on the individual cults of so-called
esoteric forms of Avalokiteśvara include significant research on the
horse-headed Hayagrīva (Matou ; van Gulik 1935, Strickmann