. esoteric buddhist art in china, – 507
overlooked material has come to light. Among this material is the group
of monumental images placed in the main hall of Shanhua Temple
in Datong, Shanxi.^27 The main hall itself was built around
1150 C.E. and its immense size makes it one of the most impressive
buildings from the early Jin to survive to this day. The Buddhist images
in this hall are placed along the back wall of the main hall and feature
the five dhyāni buddhas, Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhī, Vairocana,
Amitābha, and Akshobya, flanked by a retinue consisting of bodhi-
sattvas, devas, and protectors. Although the images of these five bud-
dhas as a group reflect the classical Esoteric Buddhist arrangement of
the Dharmadhātu Mandala from the Tang, there is not much similar-
ity between the Jin and Tang images. In a manner of speaking, the tra-
ditional Esoteric Buddhist iconography has here undergone a strong
modification in the direction of more standard Buddhist iconography.
None of the five buddhas are ornamented or wear crowns, and virtu-
ally none of the attending divinities reflects a strong sense of Esoteric
Buddhism. As we have seen under the Song and Liao, Vairocana
here features the abhiṣeka-mudrā and not the vajramusṭ̣ī-mudrā com-
mon to Esoteric Buddhist images of this buddha, as seen in the Tang
material.
As was the case under the Liao, spells and dhāraṇīs were also promi-
nent features of Esoteric Buddhism under the Jin and their use perme-
ated all forms of Buddhism. At Shaolin Temple , the famous
stronghold of Chan Buddhism , a stele engraved with the demonic
image of Vajrapāla Nārāyaṇa (Naluoyan jin’gang shentian
; i.e., Vishnu) cast in the role as Esoteric protector can be found
(figure 3). Pillars engraved with the Uṣnīṣ ̣avijayā-dhāraṇī were also com-
mon under the Jin and reflect new, more tantric Buddhist developments
that may originally have come from the Xixia empire (figure 4).
Esoteric Buddhist Art under the Xixia
Esoteric Buddhist art under the Xixia can be divided into three types:
A Sinitic type that reflects the forms common to the Song, Liao,
and Jin; a Tangut-Tibetan type that reflects tantric Buddhism of
the late Indo-Tibetan variety, as associated with the second spread
(^27) See Jin 2004. It would appear that some of the images have been repaired or at
least repainted at a later date, possible during the late Ming. Nevertheless, the present
arrangement reflects the original one from the Jin.