. popular esoteric deities 219
of this bodhisattva, as “Medicine Master Crystal Light Tathāgata”
(Yaoshi liuliguang rulai ), is described as residing in
the remote eastern regions in the twelfth and final roll of the Conse-
cration Scripture (Guanding jing , T. 1331), a Sinitic Buddhist
apocryphon dated by Michel Strickmann to 457 C.E. Strickmann clas-
sifies the text as proto-tantric and because it is linked to demonology
(1990).
Although no physical evidence of the Medicine Buddha’s cult
remains from pre-Tang China, there is some evidence from early Japan.
An image of Bhaisajyaguru was possibly made as early as 587 as part of ̣
a vow to erect a sixteen-foot image of a buddha flanked by attendant
bodhisattvas for the benefit of an ill Japanese ruler. Also, a seated image
of Bhaisajyaguru was created for Hōryūji ̣ when the monastery
was initially completed in 607 and the image was saved during the
fire that destroyed the original monastery in 670, which suggests that
this buddha’s cult existed to some extent in China and Korea during
the sixth century. Scholars think they have identified mid-Tang-period
paintings of Bhaisajyaguru (accompanied by Dizang) in the Dunhuang ̣
caves and in the Dazu caves in Sichuan, but these remain tentative
due to the lack of corroborating inscriptions (Zhiru 2007, 142-150).
In none of the above examples does Bhaisajyaguru function as an eso-̣
teric deity. In post-Tang times, Bhaisajyaguru appears in triads with ̣
Amitābha and Śākyamuni and in directional mandalas with Vairocana
in the center. Donors evoked him for health and protection. In the
eighth century, however, Vajrabodhi translated the Ritual Procedures
for Visualizing the Medicine Buddha (Yaoshi rulai guanxing yigui
, T. 923); Strickmann classifies this text as tantric
although penance and devotion are its central themes (2002, 210).
During the late seventh century, the cult of the goddess Cundī
(Zhunti ), a.k.a. Saptakot i Buddhabhagavatī, “the Buddhist god-̣
dess of the Seventy Million” (Qijudi fomu ), which is
commonly mistranslated as “Mother of Seventy Million Buddhas,” was
introduced to China. Translations of dhāraṇī sūtras concerning this
figure were executed by Divākara (613–688) in 685 or 686 (T. 1077),
by Vajrabodhi in 723 (T. 1075), and by Amoghavajra between 742 and
774 (T. 1076). Śubhākarasiṃha also produced a few Cundī sādhana
(T. 1078, T. 1079). The cult of Cundī continued in North China on
Mount Wutai through the Liao period and beyond (T. 1955, Gimello
2004).