. esoteric buddhist art in china, – 505
Esoteric Buddhist Art under the Liao
Some of the features of Esoteric Buddhist art from the Liao, especially
that dating from the first century of the dynasty, reflect a rather pro-
nounced influence from the second half of the Tang. Later, however,
this influence becomes less evident during the course of the eleventh
century and is gradually replaced by a less orthodox style that emulates
the iconographical norms in vogue under the Northern Song.
Much of what has survived of Esoteric Buddhist art from the Liao
has been found in connection with repairs and restoration of pago-
das and other Buddhist monuments. A notable example is the North-
ern Pagoda at Chaoyang, in present-day Liaoning province, where
archaeologists found two cachés of Buddhist relics and treasures dur-
ing restoration work carried out between 1984 and 1988.^22 The upper
repository of relics, traditionally referred to as the “heavenly palace”
(tiangong ), yielded a rich hoard of Esoteric Buddhist artifacts,
including a small scripture stūpa, a dharma wheel with a vajra and
ghaṇṭā, and so on. The stone casket holding the artifacts is decorated
with engraved images on all four sides: the eastern side has images of
the trikāya, represented by Śākyamuni as the nīrmānakāya, Rocana as
the sambhogakāya, and Vairocana as the dharmakāya;^23 the northern
side features a mandala in which a central Vairocana is surrounded
by the eight great bodhisattvas (this mandala bears some resemblance
to the variant Vajradhātu Mandala found on the relic casket at Famen
Temple).^24 The outer side of the scripture stūpa mentioned above is
decorated with an image of the crowned Vairocana with his hands
in the vajramuṣṭī-mudrā (figure 2), and the inner layer features the
same mandala found on the northern wall of the stone casket. All of
these items reflect to some extent earlier Esoteric Buddhist concepts;
however, this connects them only indirectly and partially with classic
Zhenyan Buddhism of the Tang.
(^22) See Chaoyang Beita kaogu kancha-dui, comp. 1992. The double treasuries were
sealed during the first half of the eleventh century. See also Zhang, Wang, and Dong
1992.
(^23) While on the surface this triad would appear to reflect iconography related to the
Avataṃsaka sūtra rather than an Esoteric Buddhist motief, the vajramusṭī-mudrạ̄ of
Vairocana clearly indicates an Esoteric Buddhist influence. Such a synthesis between
the Huayan tradition and Esoteric Buddhism is not uncommon in Buddhist iconog-
raphy from the post-Tang period. Cf. Sørensen 2008, 385–86. 24
See Sørensen “Esoteric Buddhist Art Under the Tang,” and Chen, “Esoteric Bud-
dhism and Monastic Institutions,” in this volume.