Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia

506 henrik h. sørensen

The material found in connection with the opening of the under-

ground chamber, the “earthly palace” (digong ), included a large

octagonal, three-storied dhāraṇī pillar with engravings of a series of

dhāraṇīs as well as the Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdāya sūtra, which was evi-

dently also understood as a spell text by the makers of the pillar. While

the Buddhist relics recovered from the North Pagoda are not exclu-

sively Esoteric Buddhist in nature, they do constitute a significant, if

not dominant, element in the overall iconographical program of the

pagoda.^25 The Chaoyang Pagoda alone cannot be taken as representa-

tive of Esoteric Buddhist art in the Liao empire, but it provides us with

a general notion of what sort of material to expect and the context(s)

in which it was used.^26

Esoteric Buddhist Art under the Jin

Information about art related to Esoteric Buddhism from the Jin is

generally hard to come by; however, in recent years new or hitherto

(^25) This has led the Chinese archaeological team to incorrectly conclude that the
pagoda represents “Liao Esoteric Buddhism.” Cf. Chaoyang Beita kaogu kancha dui,
comp. 1992, 28b.
(^26) See also the data presented in Li 1961.
Figure 2. Line drawing depicting Mahāvairocana surrounded by the eight stūpas from the
North Pagoda. Chaoyang, Hebei, Liao dynasty (After Zhang and Dong 1992 We nw u 7).