Sculpture under Mongol Patronage: An Indian Buddhist Deity in a Nepalo-Tibeto-Chinese Form

Rob Linrothe

Relief Carving of a Nine-Deity Ushnishavijaya Composition, Niche 84 at Feilaifeng Cliff

Hangzhou, China ca. 1282–1292

Nine-Deity Ushnishavijaya Composition; Feilaifeng Cliff, Niche 84, Hangzhou, China; ca. 1282–1292; stone; photograph by Karl Debreczeny

Summary

In East Asia, Ushnishavijaya was the name of a powerful prayer, while in Tibetan Buddhism, this prayer was personified as a deity. Art historian Rob Linrothe examines the multicultural history of an Ushnishavijaya image carved into a cliff side on the east coast of China according to Tibetan and Nepalese iconography, and commissioned by a Tangut administrator working for the Mongol emperor Qubilai Khan. The image may have been created as part of long-life rituals for the emperor.

Key Terms

deity

Different Asian religious traditions posit different types of divine beings. Hindus generally believe in an all-encompassing God-like being, called Brahman. They also believe in a variety of other gods (deva), including Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Early Buddhists denied the existence of a single, all-powerful creator god. Nevertheless, they always recognized a variety of powerful spirits, like gandharvas and nagas. Mahayana Buddhists came to see bodhisattvas as beings of enormous power, and buddhas themselves as cosmic beings with the ability to create entire universes. Buddhist and Bon traditions in Tibet worshiped a variety of other gods (Tib. lha), like the mountain gods, or gods of the land. According to Buddhist tradition, enlightened deities are seen as beyond the cycle of death and rebirth, whereas gods (including Hindu gods) are not.

dharani

In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, a dharani is a short, Sanskrit language text or spell-like formulas thought to have protective power when written or recited out loud, often as part of a ritual. Often inscribed on objects or at sacred sites, their power through the written physical presence is associated with long life, purification, and protection. Dharanis are similar to mantras, but usually longer. One important dharani is the Ushnishavijaya Dharani. The Pancharaksha is another important text that contains five dharanis of protection.

donor

In Buddhist context, donor is a person who contributes to or commissions a religious work of art. This act is intended to increase merit on behalf of the benefactor and is dedicated to the benefit of all. It is also usually done for a specific purpose, such as longevity, prosperity, or well-being; to advance religious practice; or to ensure a good rebirth of a deceased relative, teacher, or friend. A similar practice is also known in Hinduism and Bon.

merit

In Buddhism, merit is accumulated positive karma, or positive actions, that lead to positive results, such as better rebirths. Buddhists gain merit by reciting mantras, donating to monasteries and those in need, performing pilgrimages, commissioning artworks, reproducing and reciting Buddhist texts, and other deeds with good intentions. It is believed that merit can also be transferred to others through rituals performed to gain merit for deceased family members help them achieve a better rebirth. Merit making is an important motivation for positive ritual action, and is a prerequisite for success of religious and even secular activity.

stupa

Stupas are monuments that initially contained cremated remains of Buddha Shakyamuni or important monks, his disciples, and subsequently other material and symbolic relics associated with the Buddha’s body, teaching, and enlightened mind. As representations of the Buddha’s presence in the world, stupas with their contents—texts, relics, tsatsas—continue to be important objects of Buddhist worship in their diverse forms of domed structures, multistoried pagodas, and portable sculptures. The original form of stupas was an earthen dome-shaped mound containing the remains in reliquary vessels or urns deposited within the innermost core. The dome would often be successively enlarged and surrounded by a path for a walk around in a clockwise direction and veneration (circumambulation)

Tanguts

The Tanguts were an ethnic group in medieval East-Central Asia, who called themselves Minyak and spoke a language distantly related to Tibetan. Between 1038 and 1227 CE the Tanguts ruled a state in what is now the Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai. This state took the Chinese dynastic name of Xia, also called Xixia “Western Xia.” The Tangut-Xixia emperors were major patrons of Buddhism, inviting both Chinese and Tibetan monks to teach in the capital, and instituting major Buddhist translation and printing projects in three languages. The Tangut state was destroyed by the armies of Chinggis Khan, leading to their absorption into the Mongol Empire, where many Tanguts served as officials.

In considering this relief (fig. 1), many themes intertwine. Carved into a cliff near the in Hangzhou, China, it has as its central theme a personified prayer for long life and favorable rebirth. Its hybrid style, a combination of Nepalese and Tibetan artistic conventions filtered through the eyes of Chinese sculptors, visually documents the role of Tibetan Buddhists in multiethnic politics of Mongol rule over China. The sculptural work stands as testimony to tidal waves of culture breaking on the beaches of religious and political entities along the South, Central, and East Asian inhabited spaces, and in the process depositing Indian knowledge systems strained through Himalayan nets. It silently illustrates the extended reach of Himalayan cultures in wider interchanges across , Mongolia, and western and eastern China.

Ushnishavijaya, Deity and Dharani

The depicted inside the , surrounded by eight other deities, is (“Victorious Crown Ornament”). She is the personification of a spell-like prayer () expounded by the according to an early text, translated into Chinese from the Sanskrit, but which transliterated the Sanskrit dharani. This version was popular in (618–906 CE) China and in Japan in the same period. The prayer promises to extend lifetimes and ensure favorable rebirth. The short version of her namesake speech is carved into the composition. The narrow ornamental band outlining the central niche of the stupa is carved in low relief in a scrolling vine pattern (fig. 2). Every third scroll depicts a disk with a so-called ranjana syllable of Sanskrit. Between each such disk with carved writing are two smaller scrolls clasping lotus flowers. The carved text starts one position to the left of center and moves toward the viewer’s right, then continues, moving right to left this time, just to the left of where it started. The first line, “om bhrum svaha,” is Ushnishavijaya’s heart , and the last line, “om amritya ayur dade svaha,” means “Om Giver of Immortal life, svaha!” The Ushnishavijaya Dharani was also transliterated and carved in Tangut, Tibetan, Mongolian square script (“”), , and Chinese scripts at the Juyong Guan. The vase that she holds in her lap is filled with amrita, the nectar of deathlessness with which she is identified.

Fig. 2.

Diagram of the Nine-Deity Ushnishavijaya Composition, Feilaifeng Cliff, Niche 84, including the ornamental band with the dharani; after Liao Yang, “Feilaifeng Yuan dai shike zaoxiang neirong xu lu;” fig. 95; used with permission

The Ushnishavijaya Dharani is an early powerful protective prayer originating in India but widely promulgated in China and Japan. Then, there was no mention of a personification. Only later, in India, was the prayer personified and then transmitted to Tibet (fig. 3). She does not appear as a personification in East Asia except in Himalayan contexts such as the Achala , where she is portrayed as a peaceful deity in the lower register. In the late twelfth century, created many images of her derived from Tibet in various media, including woodblock prints. She seems to have been included in a dynastic cult to confer legitimacy, state protection, and personal welfare on the Tangut royal family.

Fig. 3.

Ushnishavijaya; Nalanda, Bihar, India; ca. 11th–12th century; stone; height 26 in. (66 cm); Indian Museum, Kolkata; photograph by R. Linrothe

The Tangut background is not incidental to the Feilaifeng image, since some of its sculptures were sponsored by a Tangut employed by the Mongol court. Yang Lianzhenjia was a married Buddhist monk trusted by Qubilai Khan (r. 1260–1294), who appointed him commissioner of religious affairs in Hangzhou, the capital of the wealthy Southern Song state recently defeated by the Mongols. The Ushnishavijaya composition at Feilaifeng resembles others paid for by Commissioner Yang, including two dated to 1292 depicting Buddhist themes in the same hybrid Sinicized Himalayan manner.

Rituals of Commemoration

Tibetan paintings of Ushnishavijaya commemorated recently deceased loved ones, and the thus accrued dedicated to their favorable rebirth. An Ushnishavijaya painting in the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, New York (fig. 4), depicts the deceased reborn in white robes on a lotus in a Pure Land (fig. 5). Two known rituals in Nepal involving Ushnishavijaya are carried out on attaining the age of sixty and, more rarely, seventy-seven. Both produce merit for extending one’s lifetime and preparing for rebirth. One calls for the fabrication of (ideally) one hundred thousand mold-stamped stupas and paintings with a large stupa in the center containing Ushnishavijaya surrounded by smaller stupas. Such practices illustrate the Buddhist association of Ushnishavijaya with funerary and commemorative functions. It raises the unanswerable question of whether or not Niche 84 had a related function late in the reign of Qubilai Khan.

Fig. 4

Ushnishavijaya; Tibet; 18th century; ground mineral pigment on cotton; 39¼ × 27¼ in. (99.7 × 69.2 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.507 (HAR 975)

Fig. 5

Detail of Ushnishavijaya showing a figure reborn on a lotus; Tibet; 18th century; ground mineral pigment on cotton; 39¼ × 27¼ in. (99.7 × 69.2 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.507 (HAR 975)

It is possible that this composition was also one of Commissioner Yang’s productions. No readable inscription dates the sculpture, but several of the commissioner’s inscriptions mention Qubilai Khan and other members of the Mongol court, including those dated to 1292. That year, after the commissioner was condemned to death for corruption, Qubilai rescinded the sentence and rehabilitated him—a narrow escape. The year 1292 also happened to be Qubilai’s seventy-seventh, so it is not impossible that the sculpture of Ushnishavijaya was gratefully dedicated to him and for his long life. Alternatively, it may have commemorated the deceased emperor who died in 1294, to ensure his rebirth in auspicious circumstances. Yang Lianzhenjia’s death date, which would have been after 1292, is not known.

Complex, Mandala-like Composition

Niche 84 at Feilaifeng is the most complex Yuan-period composition at a site dotted mainly with single deities. Among extant niches at the site, this one most closely approaches a mandala, though the composition is triadically, not pentadically, symmetrical. The complexity starts with the central deity: Ushnishavijaya has three heads and eight arms. Her upper right hand supports a small image of Buddha . Other attributes are the vase of amrita, a bow and arrow, a noose to draw the suffering to safety, gestures of reassurance and generosity, and a double held before her chest. As the personification of the dharani spoken by the Buddha, she is herself a kind of animating the stupa.

Eight other beings surround Ushnishavijaya. At her sides are , holding an open lotus on her right, and on her left. Two pairs of protectors, or gate guardians, appear on the far edges of the composition. Above, on either side of the stupa’s superstructure (the mast [yasti] with umbrellas [chhatri]), a pair of devaputras (heavenly beings) offer more vases of amrita.

A Transcultural Form-Idiom

A final feature underscoring the transcultural nature of the Ushnishavijaya composition is its carving style. Later Chinese, responding to the non-Chinese elements, saw it as intrusively foreign, a reminder of Mongol rulers who patronized non-Chinese artists and . Indeed, Mongol rulers were patrons of respected Tibetan Buddhist teachers who endorsed their own tastes in art, and they promoted a talented young Newari artist who had previously worked at in Tibet. This artist, supposedly named Balubu (literally, “The Nepalese”) but known now as Anige (1245–1306), in 1273 became Supervisor-in-Chief of All Classes of Artisans under the Mongols with thousands of artisans working for him. While there is no evidence that Anige himself had a hand in the carving at the Feilaifeng sculptural complex, the sculptors employed by Commissioner Yang appear to have been familiar with the hybrid Nepalese-Tibetan mode of depiction and that Anige is credited with advancing. However, the puffy eyes and cheeks, high eyebrows, and minimized secondary sexual characteristics of the female Ushnishavijaya reflect an undeniable admixture of Chinese sensibility. Contrary to later Chinese impressions of its “Tibetanness,” Tibetans might remark on the sculpture’s “Chineseness.” In context, the niche is surrounded by many sculptures that would not shock Han Chinese observers. The commissioner seems to have endorsed artists working in both modes. Indeed, from the Yuan period on, themes and forms related to Buddhism of Tibet became familiar at several Chinese courts of the succeeding Ming and Qing dynasties.

Footnotes

F.Max Muller and Bunyiu Nanjio, The Ancient Palm-Leaves: Containing the Prajñā-Pārāmita-Hṛdaya-Sūtra and the Ushnisha-Vijaya-Dhāranī (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884).

It reads: oṃ bhr(ū)ṃ svāhā / namaḥ bha(ga)vate (u)ṣṇīṣāya / oṃ bhagavaṃ jayatu viśuddhe svāhā / oṃ amṛta ayur dade svāhā. This is after Liao Yang 廖旸, “Feilaifeng Yuan Dai Shike Zaoxiang Neirong Xu Lu” 飞来峰元代石刻造像内容叙錄 [Thematic Description of the Yuan Dynasty Stone Sculptures at Feilaifeng],” in Jiangnan Zangchuan Fojiao Yishu: Hangzhou Feilaifeng Shike Zaoxiang Yanjiu [Tibetan Buddhist Art South of the Yangtse River: Collective Research of Feilaifeng’s Tibetan-Style Sculpture], Edited by Xie Jisheng, ed. Xie Jisheng 謝繼勝 (Beijing: Zhongguo Zangxue chubanshe, 2014), 144–47, with the last line corrected on the basis of Martin Willson and Martin Brauen, eds., Deities of Tibetan Buddhism: The Zürich Paintings of the Icons Worthwhile to See (Bris Sku Mthong Ba Don Ldan (Boston: Wisdom, 2000), 286.

Yael Bentor, “In Praise of Stūpas: The Tibet Eulogy at Chu-Yung-Kuan Reconsidered,” Indo-Iranian Journal 38 (1995): 31–54.

Usually amrita is translated as the ambrosia of “immortality,” though the concept seems antithetical to basic Buddhist notions of no-self. Here I follow the literal meaning of “not dead” as found in James Mallinson and Péter-Dániel Szántó, The Amṛtasiddhi and Amṛtasiddhimūla: The Earliest Texts of the Haṭhayoga Tradition (Pondichery: Institut Français de Pondichéry, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 2021), 7.

Rob Linrothe, “Usnīsavijaya and the Tangut Cult of the Stūpa at Yu-Lin Cave 3,” National Palace Museum Bulletin 31, no. 4–5 (1996): 1–24 and Rob Linrothe, “Xia Renzong and the Patronage of Tangut Buddhist Art: The Stūpa and Ushnīsavijayā Cult,” Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies 28 (1998): 91–121.

Rob Linrothe, “The Commissioner’s Commissions: Late-Thirteenth-Century Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist Art in Hangzhou Under the Mongols,” ed. Matthew T. Kapstein (Boston: Wisdom, 2009).

HAR 975 (Rubin Museum object C2006.66.507).

HAR 73827, 77231, 90540.

Further descriptions and references for these are found in Rob Linrothe, “Usnīsavijaya and the Tangut Cult of the Stūpa at Yu-Lin Cave 3,” National Palace Museum Bulletin 31, no. 4–5 (1996): 1–24.

Since at least the eighteenth century, Ushnishavijaya has been grouped with Amitayus and White Tara as the “Three Deities of Longevity.” This triad seems to have been formulated in Tibet, not in India; see Matthew T. Kapstein, “Textualizing the Icon: The Three Deities of Longevity in Art and Ritual,” in Tibetan and Himalayan Healing: An Anthology for Anthony Aris, ed. Charles Ramble and Ulrike Roesler (Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 2015), 383–403.

For a succinct summary of Tangut and Mongol Yuan rule and interest in Himalayan Buddhism, see Karl Debreczeny, ed., Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, Exhibition catalog (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019),28-39, http://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/faith_and_empire.

On the left, Takkiraja with a long-handled elephant goad (above) and Niladanda with a club (below); on the right, Acala with a sword (above) and Mahabala with a three-pointed vajra (below).

Anning Jing, “Anige, Himalayan Artist in Khubilai Khan’s Court,” Asian Art and Culture 9, no. 3 (Fall) (1996): 46–47.

This is in line with other initiatives that attempted to synthesize, not separate, Han Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism. For example, in 1285, Qubilai “gathered at his court a number of famous Tibetan, Han Chinese and Uygur Buddhist scholars of the time . . . and set them to the task of editing both the Chinese and the Tibetan versions of the Buddhist scriptures, checking one against the other, a task which took them three years to accomplish. . . . Their efforts opened up a wider field for the study of Tibetan and Han Chinese religion and culture.” Sun Wenjing, “Remarks on the Cataloguing and Classification of Tibetan Classics and Literary Texts: A Preliminary Survey of the Tibetan Collection in the China Library of Nationalities in Beijing,” Studies in Central and East Asian Religions 1, no. Autumn (1988): 91.