. after amoghavajra 333
of wrathful protectors (vidyārājas or mingwang ), the receipt of
twenty-eight “Vajra Precepts,” and so on.^92 Another manual, S. 5589,
dating from the early Northern Song, includes yet another ghost-feed-
ing text (labeled Yankou egui tuoluoni jing on the
cover but Sanshi wen inside), a series of mantras that appear to
be related to the Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara of the Nīlakaṇthaka ̣
sūtra,^93 and invocations of almost every common Buddhist divinity
and gods of natural forces.
There are numerous murals and banners involving esoteric forms of
Avalokiteśvara (Ekādaśamukha, Sahasrabhuja-sahasranetra) and even
Vajrapāṇi and Mahāmāyūrī dating from the seventh and eighth cen-
turies.^94 Esoteric materials proliferate after the return of the Dunhuang
area to Chinese control in 848. Some twenty-two late Tang caves have
major esoteric images, but there are only a few in which esoteric images
dominate.^95 The picture is similar for Sichuan, the other locale where a
large number of esoteric images is still preserved.^96
The overall impression—garnered from both texts and images—is
that by the ninth century the cults of certain deities with strong eso-
teric affinities had become the focus of wider devotion. This is not
unlike the process of “esotericization” that transformed Japanese reli-
gion (mikkyōka ).
Aside from the growing popularity of deities originally belonging
to the esoteric orbit, texts with broadly apotropaic and prognostica-
tory aims proliferated in the eighth and ninth centuries, and many
of them appropriated ritual elements originating in the institutionally
supported elite lineages. Works such as the two manuals mentioned
above and ascribed to Zhihuilun give us a window onto this flour-
ishing world of mantric practice. Unlike manuals connected to the
(^92) For this text see the study by Reis-Habito 1994.
(^93) Qian yan qian bei Guanshiyin pusa tuoluoni shenzhou jing
, T. 1057b; Qian shou qian yan Guanshiyin pusa mu tuoluoni shen jing
, T. 1058; and Qian shou qian yan Guanshiyin
pusa guangda yuanman wuai dabeixin tuoluoni jing
, T. 1060.
(^94) On esoteric art at Dunhuang see Schmid, “Esoteric Buddhism in the Provinces:
Dunhuang and Central Asia,” in this volume.
(^95) For a well-illustrated overview see Peng 2008. It should be noted, however, that
Peng uses the late Shingon-derived taxonomy of Pure/Miscellaneous esotericism in
his discussions. 96
For a discussion and analysis see Sørensen, “Esoteric Buddhist Art under the
Tang,” in this volume.