390 henrik h. sØrensen
the majority of the local Buddhists, monastics and lay alike. After the
funerary pyre had burned down, the ashes and other remains were col-
lected and placed in a lidded urn of burnt clay. The urn was next placed
in a small coffin made of schist slabs together with other offerings and
personal belongs of the deceased. It is possible that the ritual described
in the Jin’gangsaduo huoweng tan shou guan yi mentioned above was
used in connection with the sealing and interring of the funerary jars,
something that may be taken as solid proof of the connection between
Esoteric Buddhist lore and the afterlife beliefs current among the Bai
in Dali. The Esoteric Buddhist context of these burials can be deduced
further from the fact that the sides of the coffins were decorated with
Sanskrit bīja representative of Buddhist divinities. Furthermore, many
urns or funerary jars as well as tomb inscriptions feature the engraved
Buddhoṣṇīṣa-dhāraṇī written in Siddham (figure 3).^41
Conclusion
Buddhism may have entered Yunnan as early as the late Han dynasty,
but almost no solid data exist with which to document this. Only
from the time of the founding of the Bai kingdom of Nanzhao during
the seventh century does an outline of Buddhist influence in Yunnan
begin to take shape. However, it is not until two centuries later that
a clearer picture begins to manifest. At that time a full-fledged local
form of Buddhism had come about, complete with monks, temples,
grotto sanctuaries, and cults. It would appear that Esoteric Buddhist
practices were particularly widespread during the second half of the
ninth century. The succeeding kingdom of Dali continued to build on
the myths of the Nanzhao, in particular those aspects that cemented
the relationship between the ruling houses and Buddhism.
On the basis of the extant manuscripts from the Dali, Song, and later
periods that have been found in western Yunnan, it is clear that many
of the Esoteric Buddhist texts that constituted the foundation of the
religious beliefs and practices of the Bai people were imported from
southwest China. By extension this was also the case with Buddhist
iconography as reflected in sculptures and votive paintings. Among
the Esoteric Buddhist text-material from the Dali period, we also find
(^41) Howard 1997, 33–72 has discussed the connection between burial and crema-
tion in Yunnan in relation to the Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī. See also Yang 1993, vol. 7 for
numerous examples dating from the late Dali kingdom to the Ming.