384 henrik h. sØrensen
(Ritual for the Vajrasattva Fire Urn Altar Bestowal of
Abhiṣeka);^22 and others.^23
Here mention can also be made of an interesting diagram drawn on
silk depicting the Vajradhātu Mandala with the positions of the divini-
ties indicated in Sanskrit.^24 This mandala was in all likelihood meant to
be placed on an altar as a ground plan on which images were placed
when the appropriate ritual was being performed. Through compari-
son with orthodox representations of this mandala as seen in the sur-
viving Sino-Japanese examples from the ninth century, it is clear that
the type of ritual of the Vajradhātu Mandala as conducted by the Bai
during the Dali period deviated to a considerable extent. It is imme-
diately clear that the early Tang form with its nine assemblies was not
employed by the Dali Buddhists, but included instead an extended,
single-assembly type evolving around the five dhyāni buddhas and
their kulas.^25
Another interesting item is a spell written in red color in Sanskrit in
combination with a large composite talisman of the traditional Chinese
variety, in this case with Siddham syllables and swastikas substituting
the usual Chinese characters (Lutz 1991, 214–216). Both the mandala
as well as the talisman were recovered from the relic throve found in
the large pagoda of the Chongsheng Temple and would appear to date
from the twelfth century. It seems that written talismans were quite
popular in Dali Buddhism and that they were used in ways that we do
not see in Chinese Buddhism (figure 1).
One example of this can be seen in the above manuscript of the Zhu
fo pusa jin’gang deng qiqing yigui, which features a series of talismans
written in red underneath the manuscript’s main text.^26 Although the
(^22) Not known from the Chinese canonical sources. The urn mentioned in the title
is evidently for the ashes of the dead after cremation and reflects a Buddhist practice
characteristic of the Bai people (cf. figure 3). How Vajrasattva came to occupy a posi-
tion as supervisor or guide for the spirits of the dead is not known. This text may be
from the post-Dali period. 23
See also Li 1979, 54–56, + 1 pl. Photos of some of the manuscripts can be found
in Nanzhao Dali wenwu, 1992, 226–227, pls. 96–98. The short essay by Li 1979 above
has been republished with minor modifications in Nanzhao Dali wenwu 1992: 170–
- For an updated presentation, see Li Xiaoyou 1991, 277–305. 24
For a discussion of the Vajradhātu Mandala see Lutz 1991, 95–99. See also Jiang,
Qiu, and Yunnan 1998, 83. For the talisman and related writings, see Jiang, Qiu, and
Yunnan 1998, 84–87. 25
A similar view was presented by Soper many years ago, but without access to any
concrete material with which to support it. See Chapin 1971, 115.
(^26) Cf. in Nanzhao Dali wenwu, pls. 96–98, pp. 226–227. For a close-up, see Lutz
1991, 87. This close-up also shows the use of Sanskrit written in red to denote the
correct sounds to be used when intoning the spells.