414 henrik h. sØrensen
shows how quickly Esoteric Buddhist images (and, we must suppose,
their cults) spread to the provinces.
At the ruined site of Pantuo Temple in Qionglai
county adjacent to area of the provincial capital of Yizhou (mod-
ern Chengdu), we find images of Esoteric Buddhist deities including
Vairocana, Trailokyavijaya, and a rare, early example of Acala, seated
with the sword in traditional pose, probably dating from the middle
to late eighth century.^22
Qianfoyan and Niushenyai , both in Jiajiang county
, feature sculptures belonging to the cults of both Vaiśravan ̣a
and the thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara, something that is also seen
in Zizhong (Zizhou ) to the east of Chengdu, where, at
Beiyan , there are several Esoteric Buddhist sculptures from the
eighth to ninth centuries (see Hu 1994, 45–49). Here we also find
uncrowned images of Vairocana with the hands forming the charac-
teristic vajramuṣtī-mudrā/bodhi-śrī-mudrạ̄ (jin’gang zhi yin
). This reveals that the transmission of Esoteric Buddhism to this
area did not always follow the iconographic norms of mainstream
Zhenyan Buddhism in the region of the twin capitals.
Dazu county in the eastern part of Sichuan is undoubtedly
the most well-known area with Buddhist sculptural sites, and it is also
the home of the largest concentrations of Esoteric Buddhist sculptures
and reliefs in Sichuan. There are only two Tang-period sites of note
here, Shengshui Temple (see Chongqing and Sichuansheng
1994, esp. 34–36) and Mt. Bei.^23 At these sites we find images
of the thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara (figure 5), Vaiśravaṇa, Acala,
and Cintāmaṇicakra-Avalokiteśvara. As with all the other Sichuanese
sites from the Tang, there is no logical order or internal coherence
detectable in connection with the sculptural groups and the overall
placement of the images, which seems to reflect the spiritual concerns
of individual donors or donor-groups and resulted in the rocks being
carved in an ad hoc manner.
(^22) Cf. Pak 2000. Although the images from Pantuo Temple discussed in this article
are severely damaged, they do provide us with important information on the iconog-
raphy and typology of Esoteric Buddhist images in the Chengdu area during the late
eighth century. 23
For a brief discussion of the former site, see Sørensen 2008. The latter site is
discussed in great detail in Suchan 2003.