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Amoghavajra established Acala as a basic deity after he was detained
in Chang’an during the An Lushan Rebellion; he secretly performed
rituals to extirpate the usurpers and communicated sensitive informa-
tion in support of the Tang loyalists (Chou 1945, 294–95; Orzech 1998,
141–42). In 759, soon after the restoration of the Tang, Amoghavajra
was called to consecrate Emperor Suzong as a cakravartin, confirm-
ing the unstable reign of the Son of Heaven by reference to Buddhist
notions of universal sovereignty. Likewise, the sudden death of the
Uighur commander Pugu Huaien and the subsequent split of the
Tibetan-Uighur military alliance that threatened the Tang in 765 were
interpreted as the results of Amoghavajra’s ritual command of Acala
(Peterson 1979, 489–91). Emperor Daizong ordered over one hundred
monks to be stationed in the palace to perform state protection rituals
whenever a threat occurred, and further ordered that a copy of the
Scripture on Perfect Insight for Humane Kings must be carried ahead
of the emperor whenever he left the palace (Gernet 1995, 291–92).
Amoghavajra had free access to the inner palace and was allowed
to dispute the authority of ministers; he enjoyed support from chief
ministers, eunuchs, and military commanders such as Wang Jin
(700–782 C.E.), Yu Chaoen (722–770 C.E.), Du Hongjian
(709–769 C.E.), and Yuan Cai (d. 770 C.E.). Such men,
who were competing for influence on court politics, were eager to
become his allies, and accordingly they also supported the construc-
tion of chapels and altars dedicated to Amoghavajra’s ritual projects
(Nakata 2006).
In 767, Amoghavajra initiated the ordination of thirty-seven monks
for repeated rituals, referring to the Vajradhātu Mandala and its thirty-
seven basic deities. These rituals emulated the “cosmocracy” of the
Buddha Vairocana, the omniscient and omnipotent overlord reified
in configurations of divine force accessible to the ācārya. Charged
with “numinous empowerment,” the function of the ācārya was to
evoke these deities in order to “establish the state as a field of merit”
(T. 2120.52:835b21–c9; Orzech 1998, 161). The emperor in turn was
obliged to protect the Dharma through government-sponsored main-
tenance of sacred sites, tax exemptions for monasteries, prohibitions
against offending members of the clergy, and other measures in sup-
port of Buddhist institutions. Consequently, in 768, Emperor Daizong
ordered his ministers, military commanders, and eunuch attendants to
receive the abhiṣeka from Amoghavajra, whose rituals had become an