Reshaping the Jātaka Stories: from Jātakas to Avadānas and Praṇidhānas in Paintings at Kucha and Turfan

BSRV 29.1 (2012) 57–83 Buddhist Studies Review ISSN (print) 0256-2897 doi: 10.1558/bsrv.v29i1.57 Buddhist Studies Review ISSN (online) 1747-9681

Ti a n s h u Zh u

University o f Ma c a o

[email protected]

Ab s t r a c t

Kucha was the major Buddhist center on the Northern Route of the Silk Road, and well known for being dominated by the Sarvāstivāda school for most of its history. Replacing the jātaka story, the avadāna story (story of causation) became the major theme depicted on the ceiling of the central- pillar caves in this area (fifth–seventh centuries). Turfan is another important cultural center in Central Asia where Buddhism once flourished. The praṇidhāna (or ‘vow’) painting, which was based on the Bhaiṣajyavastu, a vinaya text of the Mulasarvāstivāda school, was a unique subject normally appearing on the walls of Buddhist caves in Turfan (ninth–twelfth centuries). Both the avadāna and praṇidhāna stories are derived from jātaka stories, with significant shifts of focus, as well as of the format of the narrative. In this paper, through studying the avadāna and vow paintings at Kucha and Turfan, and comparing them with jātakas in early Buddhist art, I attempt to show how jātaka stories were transformed for different doctrinal messages of Buddhist teaching in some late ‘Hīnayāna’ schools, namely Sarvāstivāda and Mulasarvāstivāda, and how the visual representations mirror the narrative styles in Buddhist texts.

Key words jātaka stories, avadāna, praṇidhāna, Kucha, Turfan, Buddhist art

Śākyamuni’s actions, especially as portrayed in stories of his previous incarnations as a bodhisattva, serve as guides and inspirations for Buddhist followers, as they exemplify the path of becoming a Buddha. With various emphases, these birth stories, or jātakas, were selected and compiled into various kinds of texts in Buddhist history, and some of these stories were visually represented in Buddhist

© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2012, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheffield S3 8AF 58 Tianshu Zhu temples and caves. Accordingly in Buddhist art, jātaka stories in different con- texts may appear in formats that are quite different from each other. This study examines three types of distinctive iconographies of the Buddha’s birth stories in Chinese Buddhist art: the jātaka and avadāna (cause and effect) paintings on the ceiling vaults in the Kizil central-pillar caves at Kucha (fifth-seventh centuries), and the praṇidhāna (vow) paintings on the side walls from the Bezeklik caves in Turfan (ninth-twelfth centuries). These different types of representations of Śākyamuni’s previous incarnations reveal how jātaka stories were transformed to illustrate different messages of Buddhist teaching in different times and places. More precisely, in this study I discuss: in terms of subject matter, how different types of stories were chosen in these paintings, and in terms of style, how the visual representations may mirror the narrative styles of Buddhist texts. FROM JĀTAKAS TO AVADĀNAS AT KUCHA Kucha was a major Buddhist center on the northern route of the Silk Road, now in Xinjiang Province, China. The well-known Kizil cave site is the most typical Buddhist cave at Kucha. With over three hundred caves, Kizil is the earliest and is also one of the largest Buddhist cave sites in Central Asia. It is especially known for its lavish wall paintings, many of which are still extant and vibrant. The dating of the Kizil caves is still a controversial matter. Nonetheless, based on radio- carbon tests, epigraphic information from the caves, comprehensive typological study by archaeologists, and comparison with cave paintings at Dunhuang, it can at least be said with certainty that the Kizil site was active from the fifth to the seventh centuries.1 The site consists of a variety of different types of caves with different functions: central-pillar caves extensively decorated with paintings as worship halls; square caves, most of which are not painted, which may have served as lecture halls; residential caves that are never painted, and the plain small meditation caves that are hidden in isolated areas slightly distant from all the other caves. Paintings in the central-pillar caves at Kizil are highly repetitive, and for centuries before the decline of the site, they demonstrate a fairly consistent iconographic program, in which the vaulted ceiling in the main hall (see Figure 1) is covered with stylized mountains whose peaks form diamond-shaped patterns. Usually, one diamond-shaped cell contains one story, and two types of paintings appear in the mountain patterns on the ceiling. One type features narrative depictions; while the other type features a Buddha figure seated in the center. (I will call them ‘narrative scene’ and ‘seated Buddha scene’ respectively hereafter.) For the subjects that have been identified, the former are jātakas, and the latter are mostly avadānas and occasionally parables (Ma 1996, 174–226; Yao 1987–1988, 65–74, 19–25, 18–21).

1. For early dating by German scholars, see Grünwedel 1912, 5–6, 42–43; Le Coq et al. 1923–1933, vol 3: 21–23, vol 7: 27–29. For different chronologies by Chinese archaeologists, see Su 1989, 10–23; Li 2003, 148–176; Vignato 2004, 74–80. For detailed discussion of Kizil dating problems in English, see Nagai 1977, 39–49; Howard 1991, 68–83; Lesbre 2001, 346–348.

Figure 1. Diagram of the Kizil central-pillar cave. Author’s drawing.

Jātakas According to the most recent survey, there are sixty central-pillar caves at Kizil, seventeen of which either have no vaulted ceiling in the main hall or are severely damaged.2 Among a total of the forty-three central-pillar caves with vaulted ceilings, narrative scenes are found in seven,3 and seated Buddha scenes are in twenty-seven (Vignato 2004, 16).4 Two caves, Kizil Caves 38 and 91, have rows of narrative and seated Buddha scenes alternating one next to each other (Figure 2). Chinese archaeologists have found that, on the whole, the dates of paintings of the narrative scenes are earlier than the seated Buddha scenes and parables (Su 1989, 10–23; Vignato 2004, 16–21). Overall, in the central-pillar caves at Kizil, avadānas seem to be the main themes depicted on the ceilings, though jātakas often appear in the early phase and are occasionally mixed with parables. The narrative scenes are relatively easy to identify, and their subjects have been recognized as jātakas by German scholars at the beginning of the last century. So far, out of about 440 paintings of over 130 narratives, at least 72 subjects (of 340 paintings) have been identified (Qiuci Shiku Yanjiusuo 1993, 36). The representation of a story is usually simplified to only one or two key episodes. For example, as shown in Figure 3, in the story of the monkey king (Mahākapi Jātaka) in Kizil Cave 38, a very large monkey is depicted in the center, stretching his body and holding a tree on the other side of a river. Two other smaller monkeys are stepping on his body to cross the river. In the foreground, a kneeling archer is shooting at them. In Kizil Cave 17 (Figure 4) this story is represented

2. The seventeen caves are 20a, 23, 27, 43, 125, 126, 136, 160, 174, 178, 181, 186, 193, 197, 201, 206, and 208. 3. They are Kizil Caves 7, 13, 17, 69(2), 114, 178 and 198 (2). 4. They are caves 8, 32, 24(2), 58, 63, 80(2), 87, 101, 104, 155, 159, 163, 171, 172(2), 176, 179, 184, 186, 192, 193, 195, 196, 199, 205, 206, 219, and 224.

Figure 2. Jātakas and avadānas on the ceiling vault of Kizil Cave 38, Kucha, China. Fifth to seventh centuries. Wall painting. After Xinjiang Weiwu’er Zizhiqu wenwu guanli weiyuanhui 新疆维吾尔自治区文物管理委員会, Baicheng xian Kezi’er Qianfodong wenwu baoguansuo 拜城県克孜尔千佛洞文物保管所, and Beijing daxue Kaoguxi 北京大学考古系 eds. 1989. Zhongguo shiku – Kizil shiku中国石窟–克孜尔石窟 ( Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe) vol. I, fig. 115. even more simply, with the archer omitted. However the stretching monkey, the river, and the trees are enough for anyone who knows the story to recognize it: Once, the Buddha was a king of eighty thousand monkeys living in a famous mango tree bearing extremely delicious fruits. In order to escape attack from a human king and his army who had come to find the mango tree, the monkey king stretched his body between two trees just like a bridge for other monkeys to use to cross the river. The last monkey to cross was the Buddha’s evil cousin, Devadatta. He stomped on and broke the back of the monkey king, who then fell down. Witnessing his altruistic behavior, the humans saved the monkey king, who then taught the human king the virtue of self-sacrifice. This jātaka also appeared in early Indian Buddhist art, on the vedikā (railing) of Bhārhut, dated to 100–80 BCE and on the toraṇa (gate) at Sāñcī Stūpa I (Figure 5) of the first century CE. In these early representations, a number of episodes of the story are represented within a roundel or square space in continuous narrative, including the mango fruit floating in the river, the human king and his entourage, catching the falling monkey, and the conversation between the two

Figure 3. Mahākapi Jātaka. Kizil Cave 38, Kucha, China. Author’s drawing of wall painting.

Figure 4. Mahākapi Jātaka. Kizil Cave 17, Kucha, China. Author’s drawing of wall painting.

Figure 5. Mahākapi Jātaka. Sāñcī Stūpa I, India. First century CE. Stone. Huntington Archive. kings. Compared to the Indian representations that are more explicitly narrative, the Kizil paintings are more like a reminder of the story. They communi- cate with the viewers as if they already know the story well. Indeed, by the fifth century, the time when the Kizil caves were painted, jātaka stories had circulated for centuries in the Buddhist world. Moreover, the glorious deeds performed by the Buddha in his former lives, which represent the bodhisattva ideal, had been further categorized with the theory of Ṣaṭ-pāramitās, or the Six Perfections of a bodhisattva, i.e. donation (dāna-pāramitā), morality or observing the precepts (śīla-pāramitā), patience (kshānti-pāramitā), effort or endeavor (vīrya-pāramitā), meditation (dhyāna-pāramitā), and wisdom (prajñā-pāramitā) (Spery 1958,v; Dutt 1930, 36). For instance, the jātakas in the Liudu jijing (*Ṣaṭ-pāramitā-saṃgraha-sūtra, T 152 1a–52a), translated into Chinese by the Sogdian monk Kangseng Hui 康僧會, *Saṅghapāla (third century), are classified according to the order of the Six Perfections. In classifying the subjects of the jātaka paintings found in Kizil, Yao Shihong, the Chinese archaeologist who was formerly the head of the Kizil insti- tute, also found they fit into the category of the Six Perfections (Yao 1987–1988, 65–74, 19–25, and 18–21). The numbers of the Kizil jātaka paintings in each of the

Reshaping the Jātaka Stories 63 six categories are not consistent, just as is the case with the Liudu jijing. More paintings fit into the category of the perfection of donation, and only a very few paintings can be classified as the perfection of meditation. Avadānas The majority of the ceiling paintings are in a rather different format: a seated Buddha in the center engaging with one or two figures at his sides. As shown in Figure 2, all the Buddha figures in the center are quite similar. They sit on rectan- gular thrones, most often under a tree, or occasionally against a stūpa in the background. They wear a monk’s robe in the open mode, i.e. with the right shoulder and arm uncovered, a traditional Indian manner. These Buddha figures usually turn their heads to one side, either to the right or to the left, where a subsidiary figure is placed. The subsidiary figure, which could be a celestial being, a human being, or an animal, is the principle element of the subject of the painting. Because the depiction is so over-simplified, the identification of this group of paintings is more difficult than for narrative scenes. Fewer than one third of the examples of this type of scene have been identified; and a complete inventory is impossible. The subjects that have been identified consist of stories of the Buddha’s previous incarnations, birth stories of other beings, as well as a few parables. The birth stories of other beings include those of Śākyamuni’s disciples, gods, demi-gods, and other Buddhist followers. What happened in the ‘present’, such as how they were converted to follow the Buddha, is often explained by the Buddha in texts as a result of an action in a previous life or will lead to a result in a future rebirth. And the action that leads to a desirable result is most often almsgiving. From the subject matters, these paintings look like avadānas.5 The jātakas are stories of previous incarnations only of the Buddha. The avadānas include the Buddha’s disciples or any being professing to follow Buddhist teachings, in addition to the Buddha. The texts that are most helpful in identifying these stories are avadāna and parable types of literature, the Xianyujing (‘The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish’), Zhuanji baiyuanjing (Avadāna-śataka), and Chuyaojing (Udānavarga). Sometimes the stories can be found in the nikāya/āgamas and vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādin school. So far scholars have had to rely on Chinese translations for the identification. Although those Chinese texts cannot be the direct source for the Kizil paintings, they can be related to Kucha on various levels. The stories in some of these Chinese texts can be found in the manuscripts found at the Kizil Cave site. Most of these manuscripts were written in local Tocharian language and can be dated generally to the same time period as the cave paintings. The closest text to the Kizil ceiling paintings is ‘The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish’, which was composed by Chinese monks based on the stories they heard in the lectures at the pañca-vārṣika (‘five-yearly assembly of everyone in the great community’) ceremony in Khotan in the period 424–452. At least thirty-one stories in the text have been identified with the ceiling paintings (Zhao 1993, 97–103��). There is no Indian or Kuchean original collection, though individ-

5. The avadāna theme of this group of paintings was first identified by Chinese archaeologists (Ma 1996, 174–226). Lesbre does not accept them as avadānas but refers to them more descrip- tively as ‘Lozenge scenes with a central Buddha’ and classifies them as subduing, almsgiving, and parables. Therefore, there are a number of stories that do not fit in any categories in her classification (Lesbre 2001, 305–354).

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2012 64 Tianshu Zhu ual stories could have had (and indeed do have) Indic versions. Judging from the format and the content of stories, Victor Mair found a high level of resonance between this text and the *Daśa-karmapatha-avadānamāla (‘Avadāna Stories of Ten Good Actions’), a popular text circulated in Central Asia. A colophon of a Uighur manuscript of the Daśa-karmapatha-avadānamāla has survived and reveals that the Uighur version was translated from Tokharian, a dialect used along the northern route of the Silk Road (Mair 1999, 361–420). Such information about the Daśa- karmapatha-avadānamāla indicates that a Kuchean version of a text similar to ‘The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish’ would probably have existed. The other text often used for identification for the avadāna paintings at Kizil, the Zhuanji baiyuanjing, is a Chinese translation of the Avadāna-śataka, or ‘A Hundred Avadānas’. The stories in this text are grouped under ten subjects and each consists of ten stories. Based on linguistic analysis and comparison with other texts, scholars have attributed the extant Sanskrit recession of the Avadāna- śataka to the Mūlasarvāstivādin school, a branch of the Sarvāstivādin school that was predominant in Kucha for most of its Buddhist history (Hahn 1992, 170–171; Schopen 2004, 125). The Avadāna-śataka or the stories compiled into this text would have been acknowledged in the Sarvāstivādin community at Kucha. The Udānavarga (Chuyao jing T. 212), a collection of Sanskrit verses similar to the various Dhammapadas (Pali, Prakrit, Gāndhārī), also has associated stories identified with the Kizil paintings. Stories were transmitted to explain the context of the verses. The text of the largest number of fragments found at Kizil in the Hoernle collection turned out to be the Udānavarga (Hartmann 1999, 115). The Udānavarga appears to be one of the most widely circulated texts at Kucha. It makes sense that stories belonging to this text tradition appear in cave paintings there as well. It is also not surprising that some stories of the Kizil painting can be found in Nikāya/Āgama and Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya texts, as such texts are important sources of Avadāna literature. As time passed, in order to stress and extol the effi- cacy of karma, a good number of stories scattered in early Sūtra and Vinaya piṭakas were collated into independent texts, known as avadānas (Sarkar 1981, 52–54). Therefore, an avadāna story can often be found at the same time in Nikāya/Āgama and vinaya texts; so the fact that some of these Kizil paintings can be identified with stories in these texts does not diminish the avadāna nature of these paintings. It would be easier for scholars if the stories on the ceiling of Kizil central- pillar caves had all been derived from one Buddhist text. However, just like the representations of jātakas in early Indian Buddhist art and Śākyamuni’s life from Gandhāra, they were perhaps never meant to represent one single text but were associated with a discourse of devotion that included a number of different texts. And in addition to the textual tradition, these stories of the Buddha and his previous lives, either in India or Central Asia, were probably known in the local Buddhist community through a variety of mediums, such as oral teaching and drama. There could have been some sort of local Tocharian texts similar to those extant in the Chinese canon that served as textual sources for avadāna paintings but that did not survive to the present day. However, it is also likely that the avadāna paintings relate to more than one scripture, and avadāna stories were circulated in the community via multiple mediums.

From Jātakas to Avadānas: Texts and Paintings For the Buddha’s birth stories, in Buddhist history, the fifth century witnessed the prominence of two types of literature: jātaka texts and avadāna texts. On the one hand, some of the jātakas were still circulated and compiled into new texts; and on the other hand, different birth stories were selected for inclusion in texts called avadānas. Stories were told in quite various ways by this time, and there are distinct difference between jātakas and avadānas. Such differences are reflected in their visual representation in Kizil cave paintings. By definition, a Buddha’s birth story in anavadāna text is still a jātaka. However from the jātaka to avadāna, there is a shift of emphasis in the structure and subject matter of a story. In terms of structure, both jātakas and avadānas start with the present, narrated by the Buddha, and then reveal a story of another life (Cowell 1995, xxiii; Sharma 1985, 23). Usually, the ‘present’ in a jātaka story is simple and not a fully developed story. For instance, the Buddha arrives at a certain place and smiles. Then, Ānanda asks why. So the Buddha tells a story of what took place there a long time ago. After telling the story, the Buddha identifies the main character in it as himself. However, an avadāna may be composed of two almost equally weighted stories. The ‘present’ is itself a story in the avadānas. The focus is the cause and effect relationship between two lives (Feer 1891, IX). Taking the conversions of the gandharva (heavenly musician) king as an example, this is an avadāna story which has been identified in Kizil Cave 34, 171 (Figure 6), and 196. When the Buddha was staying at the Jetavana in Śrāvastī, five hundredgandharva s made musical offerings to him. Hearing the sound of the music from a distance, an arrogant gandharva king, named Supriya in Sanskrit or Shan’ai in Chinese, came from the south to challenge anyone to contest with him on musical skill.

Figure 6. Converting gandharva King Supriya. Kizil Cave 171, China. Author’s drawing of wall painting.

King Prasenajit led him to the Buddha, who transformed himself into a gandharva to meet the challenge. Supriya could play music on a harp with only one string. In the version of the Zhuanji baiyuan jing (Avadāna-śataka), the Buddha could also play the harp with only one string, but the Buddha’s music was far more beautiful and serene (T 200 211). In the version of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayakṣudrakavastu, (‘Vinaya on Miscellaneous Matters of the Mūlasarvāstivāda School’), the Buddha eventually played the harp with no string at all (T 1451 395b–396c). In any case, the Buddha played far better. Supriya was subdued and became a Buddhist fol- lower, and soon he became an arhat. Witnessing the progress of Supriya, King Prasenajit was delighted and made various great offerings to the Buddha. At that time, surprised by those unprecedented offerings, monks asked the Buddha why he could always receive music offerings. The Buddha then told them a story: In a remote past in the region of Vārāṇasī, there was a Buddha entitled Samyaksaṃbuddha (‘the perfectly completely enlightened one’, Ch. Zhengjue 正覺 ‘Complete Awakening’). One day, as he traveled in the country of *Babhuva (Ch. Fanmo 梵摩), the King of Babhuva entertained him with his musicians and made offerings to him in his palace. Samyaksaṃbuddha preached to the king and predicted that he would be a future Buddha named Śākyamuni. In the end, Śākyamuni revealed, ‘The Babhuva King is just me, and all the officials at that time are you monks.’ Because of the merit of making offerings to a Buddha in a past life, ultimately Śākyamuni was able to became a Buddha and very often receive music offerings (Feer 1891, 76–77). In this narrative, two thirds of the story is about the present, and the past life is rather simple and short. The format of the visual representations of these stories also reflects a shift between these two bodies of literature. As discussed above, the jātaka paintings at Kizil are more descriptive. They depict what was happening in a past life. In contrast, the avadāna paintings are didactive, i.e. teaching a message, rather than a narrative of one story. Overall in Kizil avadāna paintings, the Buddha is placed in the center and takes up most of the space. The narrative is even more simplified than the jātaka, and the character of the story is smaller than the Buddha figure. Very often the story is not even identifiable. This is not surprising because avadāna stories tend to be shorter, especially the stories of making offerings, and they resemble each other. It is virtually impossible to identify a flower-offering painting because such kind of action is mentioned in numerous texts. In general, the Buddha figure in the center plays the role of narrator, which is how the story is constructed in the texts. The appearance of the narrator into a narrative depiction further creates an ambiguity of time and place in these paintings. The preaching Buddha seated in the center indicates the present time; however the other scene next to the central Buddha often occurs in a different time and location. This format also fits well with the format of the avadāna stories, in which there is equal emphasis on two stories of two times. Assuming such a format, the Buddha’s birth stories in avadāna paintings appear quite differently. First, usually only a story from one time period is represented, sometimes it is the story of the present life, sometimes it is of the past life. As shown in Figure 6, the depiction of converting a gandharva king exemplifies the former. In a slightly smaller hierarchic scale, a celestial figure with halo holding a harp is sitting at the left side of the Buddha. In the painting of the same subject in Kizil cave 196, another harp is placed in front of the Buddha. This painting

Figure 7. Buddha Fuṣya painting self-portrait. Kizil Cave 34, Kucha, China. Author’s drawing. appears to represent the present, the music contest between the Buddha and the gandharva king. In another type of avadāna painting, such as on the Buddha Fusha 弗沙 (Puṣya?) painting a self-portrait, the episode of a past time is represented. This story appears in Kizil Cave 34 (Figure 7) and 38. According to ‘The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish’, in the remote past King Boseqi (Vāsuki?) wanted to make images of Buddha Fusha for his people to venerate; however his court painters failed to capture the auspicious marks (mahāpuruṣa-lakṣaṇas) of this Buddha, so Fusha painted a self-portrait for them. Śākyamuni, at a future time, revealed that King Boseqi had been himself. Because of the merit of making Buddha images, he would always be able to be reborn as a king with auspicious body-marks, and eventually become a Buddha (T 202 368c–369a). The Kizil paintings show the seated Buddha painting on a piece of cloth held by a monk-like figure with a low uṣṇīṣa on his head. The uṣṇīṣa is one of the most important physical marks of a Buddha represented in art. This figure is presumably King Boseqi who is shown here as a Buddha-to-be, already possessing a physical mark of a Buddha. In Kucha painting, the main difference between a Buddha and a monk is the uṣṇīṣa. A Buddha image is a monk with uṣṇīṣa. In both cases, the central Buddha figures appear like other seated Buddhas on the ceiling — they sit on a platform under a tree in the mountains telling stories. The conversion of a gandharva king and Buddha Fusha painting are just two

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2012 68 Tianshu Zhu among the many stories that the Buddha told under the tree. The ambiguity of time in the format of the avadāna paintings inspires the viewer to think beyond one time period and to reflect on the cause-effect relation between the present and another time. In addition, the Buddha figures in these two paintings appear to assume double roles, one as the narrator, and the other as a character of the story. Overall, in all the seated scenes depicted on the ceiling, the Buddha figure in the center functions as the story-teller. If one of the characters in the story happened to be a Buddha, the Buddha image in the visual depiction then also takes part in the narrative as one of the characters in a previous life. In terms of subject matter, the two stories described above are all about venerating a Buddha, either by making offerings or by making images. Although the narrative scenes and Śākyamuni’s birth stories in the seated Buddha scenes are all jātakas, there is barely any overlapping of the two types in subject matter. In other words, virtually no story is depicted in both the narrative scenes and the seated Buddha scenes. In fact, a different group stories about the Buddha’s previous incarnations were selected to become avadāna literature, and these were the ones depicted in the seated Buddha scenes. This is because in addition to narrative structure, there is also a shift of doctrinal theme when jātakas become avadānas. Jātakas had a moral message, often including severe sacrifice — offering one’s body to feed a tigress, or giving away one’s flesh, eyes, and head to whoever asked for them, and in general going beyond the actions of any common human being (Sarkar 1981, 8–11; Ohnuma 2007, 38–39). The avadāna literature sets up a much humbler standard for ordinary humans — paying homage to a Buddha; offering flowers or lamps; and honoring astūpa. And the actions they narrate are no less effective in bringing desirable results to the devotee, such as attaining arhat-hood, or rebirth into the Tuṣita heaven (Sharma 1985, 19). Indeed, gaining merit through acts of worship and alms-giving become strong themes charac- teristic of the avadānas. Therefore Takahata suggests that ‘there was probably a period when the original meaning of avadāna was taken to mean ‘alms-giving’ (Takahata 1954, xxiv). Etymologically, the term avadāna has been interpreted with at least two different meanings, one of which even supports such a point of view – prefix ava‘ ’ means glorious; ‘dāna’ derives from the root ‘dā’ meaning ‘the act of donating’ (Sharma 1985, 5). However, the original meaning of the term avadāna has been lost at an early date. The term can also be interpreted as ‘cutting off’ or ‘reaping’, suggesting something ‘cut off’ or ‘selected’, and eventually, ‘glorious events and legends’, which has become the predominant view commonly accepted by many scholars (Speyer 1958, ii–iv; Ohnuma 2007, 291, n.31, 32). Nevertheless, it is generally agreed that avadānas feature the follow- ing characteristics: they emphasize the causal link between two lifetimes, not just the story from a past birth; they promote acts of devotion, especially alms- giving towards Buddha, Saṃgha, or other religious objects; they seem to target the laity since the main figures of the avadānas are often Buddhist disciples or lay Buddhist followers. In short, an avadāna is concerned more with small acts of generosity usually performed by laity, as opposed to the sometimes more turbulent and richly varied eventfulness of jātaka narrative. Alms-giving is more reasonable and accessible to the Buddhist laity than extreme forms of self-sacrifice. Moreover, alms-giving is also doctrinally very important as it constitutes the first of the Six Perfections.

During the fifth to the seventh centuries, when the avadāna stories were the major subjects decorating the ceilings of virtually all the central-pillar caves in Kizil, Mahāyāna Buddhism was already widely spread in the Buddhist world. A path of being able to be reborn in Buddha Amitābha’s land via strong devotion had become available to Buddhist followers. This was not the time when avadāna literature first appeared. Similar to the jātaka, the avadāna appears to be an old genre in Buddhist literature. The emergence of the avadāna paintings in this context, perhaps, can be better understood as reflecting a large trend in Buddhist world — the shift of emphasis from self-effort to devotion and to desirable rebirths as a consequence of this. TURFAN: THE PRAṆIDHĀNA PAINTINGS Turfan, located on the eastern extension of the Silk Road, is another important Buddhist center in east Central Asia. The praṇidhāna (vow) painting of this region, which is unique in Buddhist art, is a type of iconography that was developed to represent events of the Buddha’s previous incarnations — Śākyamuni’s long journey of making offerings to past Buddhas and receiving their prediction of his future enlightenment. It appears mainly in Bezeklik, the largest and also the major Buddhist cave site in the area. The Bezeklik Cave site was active from the ninth to the twelfth centuries during the Gaochang period (848–1283) under imperial Uighur patronage.6 At Turfan, praṇidhāna paintings appear in two different types, one on the side wall and a simplified type on the ceiling. The former is the most common type of known praṇidhāna paintings and is the focus of this study; whereas the latter is still not well published and therefore it awaits a future time for more detailed study. The praṇidhāna paintings on the side wall are mostly found at Bezeklik Cave site, but a few are found in Temple I at the Sengin site, Temple a and Temple b at the capital site of Gaochang, as well as small Buddhist sites in the near-by area at Kharahoja and Karahar, and in a few caves in Kucha under Uighur influ- ence (Meng et al. 1995, 18). Buddhist art of Turfan is not well published. Study of the praṇidhāna paintings has to rely mainly on the limited information on a few caves. At Bezeklik, as shown in Table 1 (next page), praṇidhāna paintings appear on the side walls in fourteen caves: Caves 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19, 20, 24, 25, 29, 36, 37, and 39 in Grünwedel’s numbering.7 In total over seventy pieces of praṇidhāna paintings are found, and they constitute one third of the wall paintings that have survived in Bezeklik (Jia 1992, n. p.). Table 2 shows the numbers of the praṇidhāna paintings in each cave. It seems that, at a maximum, a cave may contain fifteen or sixteen praṇidhāna paintings, and most of these caves contain only four to eight praṇidhāna paintings. With fifteen and thirteen praṇidhāna paintings sur- viving respectively, the praṇidhāna paintings in Cave 4 and 9 represent some of the best preserved. Usually, praṇidhāna paintings are placed next to one another in a consistent unified format (Figure 8). Covering the entire side wall of a cave, they are rather

6. Jia 1992, n. p.; Liu 1986, 61–70,106–108; Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiushsuo shishi-- yanshi 1991, 1039–1045. 7. The equivalent current cave numbers are based on a converting table in Meng, et al. 1995, 11. Those numbers vary from one another in the previous studies. Therefore, Grünwedel’s numbering is followed in this paper.

Table 1. The Praṇidhāna Paintings in the Bezeklik Caves. Grünwedel’s Cave numbers 2 4 8 9 10 12 19 20 24 25 29 36 37 39 Current Cave numbers ? 15 18 20 22 24 31 33 37 38 42 47 48 50 Extant vow Paintings ? 15 2 13 8 4 11 7 5 3 5 2 4 2 Original vow paintings ? 15 ? 15 8 6 14 16 8 6 8 4 4 4 large in size, and the Buddha figure in these paintings is usually around two meters tall. The Buddha is always shown standing surrounded by various beings: gods, monks, vajrapaṇī, and human beings as background. Unique to Turfan and also unique to praṇidhāna paintings, the Buddha wears a long garland of jewels. He turns his head to one side and the key figure of the story is always placed at the lower corner, upon which the Buddha’s gaze falls. Most times, the protagonist is either shown holding offerings or in a venerating position. Sometimes there is a small image of an architectural structure at the upper corner (which could be a city, a palace, a temple, or a stūpa) which might be related to the story as well. For example, it may represent a house made as an offering to the Buddha. Overall, these paintings are similar to each other in terms of the format and the actions of the protagonist; most of the stories are hardly identifiable merely with visual representation. Fortunately, many of these praṇidhāna paintings have inscriptions. According to the inscriptions, Albert von Le Coq has identified most of the themes found in Bezeklik Cave 9 (Le Coq, Albert. 1913, 17–29). Based on his studies, fourteen themes of the praṇidhāna paintings in this cave have been identified (Table 2).8 The praṇidhāna paintings in other caves more or less repeat these subjects or represent themes of the same kind. Except for one subject derived from the Avadāna-sataka, the texts of all of these inscriptions are drawn from the Sanskrit Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu, a vinaya text of the Mūlasarvāstivāda school, a text which survives in part in Sanskrit, mainly from Gilgit, and in Chinese and Tibetan translations.9 They all relate events of how Śākyamuni in his previous lives venerated other Buddhas of the past for the last three asaṅkhyas.10 In Bezeklik Cave 9, the end of three asaṅkhyas is marked in the inscription under the Theme 9, 7, and 10 respectively. Among the fifteen subjects that have been identified, only a handful of themes and Buddhas’ names can be confirmed from other litererary sources (Leidy 2001, 211–213): Theme 4 — Śākyamuni was a king who made offerings to Kṣemaṃkara Buddha; Theme 7 — Dīpaṁkara Buddha (Figure 9); Theme 9 — Śākyamuni was a princess who offered a lamp to Buddha Ratnaśikhin; Theme 10 — Śākyamuni was a Brahmacārin called Uttara who followed Buddha Kāśyapa; Theme 14 — Śākyamuni was a caravan leader who helped Buddha Bhagriratha cross a river with a boat (Figure 11). For the remaining themes of the praṇidhāna paintings in Bezeklik 8. Hirano 1961, 27–44; Kumagai 1962, 83–108; Meng 1981,43–61; Leidy 2001, 201–222; Liu, 2001,43–49. 9. T 1448 73c–76a; Hdul-ba-gshi, vol. 6, 222b–223c. 10. An asaṅkhya/asaṅkhyeya (Pali asaṅkheyya), ‘an incalculable’, is used both for one of the four periods making up a kalpa, and a large number of kalpas. The Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (III.93d– 94a) explains that it takes a bodhisattva three asaṇkheyyas to become a perfect Buddha, and that each of these consists of one thousand million million kalpas.

Cave 9, the stories are too general in that they lack an identifiable feature, and the name of the past Buddha is almost exclusively one from the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu. For example, the inscription of Theme 2 goes, ‘When I was a king,

Figure 8. Theme 5, Bezeklik Cave 9, Turfan, China. Mid-tenth to mid-eleventh centuries. Wall painting. After Albert von Le Coq, Chotscho, 21.

I made numerous offerings of jewels and music to Buddha Tamonuda who pos- sessed great merits’. This resembles the jātaka the Buddha told in the story of converting the gandharva king in the Avadāna-śataka discussed above. However the Buddhas’ names do not match. In the Chinese translation of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu, twelve named Buddhas are listed in the firstasaṅkhya , thirty-three Buddhas in the second asaṅkhya, and twenty-three in the third asaṅkhya. In total, Śākyamuni listed sixty-eight past Buddhas, which are more than those in the early jātakas. According to this Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu, Śākyamuni wor- shiped seventy-five thousand Buddhas in the first asaṅkhya, seventy-six thousand Buddhas in the asaṅkhya, and seventy-seven thousand Buddhas in the third asaṅkhya. Compared to early accounts of past Buddhas in jātakas or even Nikāya/ Āgamas, these conspicuously big numbers look like fabrications of a later time. All these events grouped in this context in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu are meant to explain two closely related and important steps toward becoming a Buddha according to the bodhisattva doctrine, the praṇdhāna (strong wish or vow) and vyākaraṇa (prediction). In this theory, a bodhisattva’s journey toward Buddhahood starts from the rise of bodhi-citta, or the thought of enlightenment. Then, he must make a praṇdhāna and declare it in the presence of a living Buddha, who gives him the prediction of his Buddhahood, called vyākaraṇa. Both the praṇdhāna and vyākaraṇa are critical steps required on the bodhisattva path (Dayal 1932, 64–67). In the fifteenth chapter of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu, the Buddha’s previous lives are organized according to the bodhisattva doctrine. Having heard various jātakas, King Prasenajit asked the Buddha when he raised the bodhi thought. The Buddha told Prasenajit how in a previous life, having witnessed a trained elephant going crazy for a female elephant and being punished by swal- lowing a burning iron ball, he then determined to seek for enlightenment and to be free from desire. After that Prasenajit asked the Buddha to whom he had made his praṇidhāna for the first time. Then the Buddha told the story of when he was a potter: he bathed a Buddha called Śākyamuni with honey and medicine when that Buddha was sick. The potter received the prediction that he would become a Buddha also called Śākyamuni. Finally, King Prasenajit asked him from that time on, how many more Buddhas to which he had made offerings predicted his bodhi. Śākyamuni replied: some 70 thousand in each asaṅkhya. After King Prasenajit left, Ānanda further asked for more details of the three-asaṅkhyas’ experience. Here is where the subject of the praṇdhāna paintings starts. After ennumerating how he made offerings to various named Buddhas in the past, Śākyamuni concluded that he received predictions of future Buddhahood from all these Buddhas. Having fulfilled the task of makingpraṇidhāna and receiving vyākaraṅa, Śākyamuni gave a very brief account of how he practiced the Six Perfections (pāramitās), which marks the next step in the bodhisattva doctrine. In short, the lives of the Buddha are purposely reshaped to fit into the bodhisattva doctrine. In this section of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu, the actual story of each of Śākyamuni’s past lives as a bodhisattva is extremely simplified. For previously well-known jātakas, they are only briefly mentioned here, not as stories to be narrated fully. Table 2 (see p. 78) shows the inscriptions on the praṇidhāna paintings in Bezeklik Cave 9 and their equivalence in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu.

Most of the stories are introduced in only four verses and two lines, with no details at all. The visual language used in the praṇidhāna paintings can be better compre- hended when we understand the nature of these birth stories of the Buddha. In traditional jātakas as well as in their visual representations, the figure of the Buddha is absent. In avadāna paintings, the Buddha appears first as the narrator, then as the main character of the story. The praṇdhāna paintings are centered on Buddha figures because they are all about venerating past Buddhas. Maybe it is partially a result of being past Buddhas that the appearance of these Buddha images in the praṇdhāna paintings appears differently from the general image of Śākyamuni and of Buddhas in Mahāyāna Buddhism: these past Buddhas wear ornaments. In the painting of theme 5 in Bezeklik Cave 9 (Figure 8), the last painting of the right side of the left corridor, an image of a monk is shown kneeling down in the lower left side of the painting with two hands in añjali mudrā paying homage to the central Buddha. He is shown in a much smaller hierarchical scale in contrast to the size of the rest of the figures in the painting. According to the inscription right above his head, he is a contemporary local monk in Turfan. Adding worshippers or patrons seems to be absent in representations of jātakas and avadānas, which are about telling stories. It is possible for praṇdhāna paintings because the praṇdhāna paintings are more about venerating Buddhas than narrating particular stories. The original text of an event in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu is extremely short and does not tell much of the story. Similarly in the praṇidhāna painting, the event is represented symbolically, only indicated by a very few elements. Figure 9 is the Dīpaṁkara Jātaka of the Kuṣāṇa period from Gandhāra. The Dīpaṁkara Jātaka is one of the best-known jātakas of the Buddha. In a remote past eon Śākyamuni was born as a Brahman youth called Megha. The king at that time monopolized the flower market in order to offer all flowers to Buddha Dīpaṁkara himself. Yet Megha managed to find some flowers and offered them to Dīpaṁkara. In addition, when Dīpaṁkara was about to pass a muddy road, Megha unfurled his hair onto the mud for the Buddha to step on. Having received these offerings from Megha, Dīpaṁkara predicted for the young Brahmin a future Buddhahood. In Gandhāra, the story is told in full scope (Figure 10); flower offering, his wife- to-be, the hair on the muddy road, and finally rising in the air. When this event is referred to in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu, only the flower offering is mentioned. The subject appears as theme 7 in Bezeklik Cave 9. In this painting from Bezeklik (Figure 9), on the right side of Dīpaṁkara Buddha, Megha is shown standing holding flowers in his hands and he is shown again kneeling down laying his hair under the feet of Dīpaṁkara. The most recognizable exclusive attribute of this painting for identification is the hair. The Buddha still wears sandals as in Gandhāran Buddhist art, however he steps on lotus flowers. If Dīpaṁkara Buddha had lotus flowers under his feet, there would have been no need for the Brahman youth to lay down his hair for the Buddha to walk on! The comparison with the Dīpaṁkara jātaka from Gandhāra demonstrates how praṇidhāna paintings are different from narrative depictions in early Buddhist art. It would be also revealing if we can compare the avadāna and praṇidhāna paintings of the same subject matter, although identifying such paintings is a difficult task. In Kizil Cave, there is an avadāna painting showing a Buddha seated in

Figure 9. Dīpaṁkara Jātaka. Bezeklik Cave 9, Furfan, China. Ninth-eleventh centuries. Wall painting. After Albert von Le Coq, Chotscho, pl.23. a boat (Figure 12). It could represent the story of a caravan leader who helped Buddha Bhagriratha cross a river, a subject that also appears in praṇidhāna paintings (Figure 11). Representing the same story, the two demonstrate how a story is told in different ways. The jātaka and avadāna paintings on the ceiling of the Kizil central-pillar caves also tell a story by representing only a key figure or the most identifiable element of the story. However in these Kizil paintings, no unneces- sary figures appear in their quite limited space; while the Bezeklik praṇidhāna paintings are overall busy in composition and filled with figures. It is, though, only the narrative of the actual story that is simplified, not the painting. In terms

Figure 10. Dīpaṃkara Jātaka. Gandhāra (Pakistan?). Ca. third–fourth centuries. Stone. British Museum, London. Photographed by John Huntington, Huntington Archive (0020962). of painting style, the Bezeklik praṇidhāna paintings are more stylized and sche- matic and Buddha figures in these paintings are more hierarchically larger than other figures. Similarly, the writing of thepraṇidhāna stories is dry and short, and narrative in avadāna texts is relatively more expansive and interesting. The praṇidhāna paintings are inscribed. Perhaps they have to be because most of them are not easily recognizable. In fact, as previously mentioned, most events in the praṇidhāna stories lack individuality. They are all about paying respect to past Buddhas whose names, mostly, are unknown in other Buddhist texts. These past Buddhas cannot be visually differentiated from each other in the praṇidhāna paintings. To each Buddha, Śākyamuni may have made some kind of offerings: flowers, music, baths, temples, and so on. They are generic offerings commonly seen in Buddhist texts and are not unique enough to make a birth story mem- orable. Rather, these events function as a group that constitutes one step of Śākyamuni’s spiritual journey: making vows and receiving predictions. Similar features appear in praṇidhāna paintings. Take the painting of theme 5 (Figure 8) for example. This painting is not much different from other praṇidhāna paintings. What happens in this story? Śākyamuni offered banners and parasols to a past Buddha when he was a king in one of his previous lives. The banner and parasols

Figure 11. A caravan leader helping Buddha Bhagriratha to cross a river with a boat. Bezeklik Cave 9,Turfan, China. Mid-tenth to mid-eleventh centuries. Wall painting. After Albert von Le Coq, Chotscho, 28 are held by three figures in the paintings. However we cannot identify the subject until we read the inscription. The lack of independency of these events leads to the next problem of the praṇidhāna paintings: a chaotic sequence. Among the over 70 thousand Buddhas

Figure 12. Caravan leader helping Buddha Bhagriratha cross a river. Kucha, China. Author’s drawing.

Figure 13. Layout of Bezeklik Cave 9. Author’s drawing.

Table 2. Fourteen themes of the praṇidhāna in Bezeklik Cave 9.

Theme nos. Inscriptions on the paintings Equivalence in the Sequence Theme in Cave 9 Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu in the nos. in text Cave 4 1 Upasthitobrāhmaṇenam 我曾作國王有佛名梵志 6–II 4 11 ahendrolokanāyakaḥ / 以浴室香湯依時沐浴佛 Jyentākakarmanāga[ndhaiḥ] / kālenagarunātathā / Vihāraṃkṛtvāsarvai ca upasthānainimantrita 2 Tamonudomahābhāgorājabhūten 我曾作國王有佛名住修 4–II 5 apūjitaḥ 以妙色珍寶音聲而供養 Nānāratnavicitreṇatulenapratipā ditaḥ 3 TaraivanagareramieŚikhināmāya 我曾作長者於彼大城中 7–II 9 śasvī 供養尸棄佛建立寺舍塔 saṃbuddhāḥśresṭḥibhūtenavihārai pujitomayā 4 Kṣemaṃkaronarādityorājabhūten 10 apūjitaḥ jyentākakarmaṇāgandhai[h]kālenag aruṇātathāvihārānāṃsahasraistuṣaṣ ṭibhisanimantritaḥ 5 narendreṇamayānanasiṃhasiṃhap 我曾作國王佛號超師子 5–II 14 arāmacchatreṇaranadaṇḍenapūjito 我以寶幡蓋供養此如來 narapuṅgavaḥ 6 Hastyaśvenasuvarṇenanāribhiratna 其寺供七佛奉施珍寶具 8–II 15 muktibhiḥṣaṇṇāṃjinānāṃpujārtha 及以奴婢等莊宅花園林 mudyānamśreṣṭhinākṛitaṃ 7 dṛṣṭvāDipaṃkaraṃbuddhaṃdyutim 次見燃燈佛多聞甚可愛 3–II 1 antaṃyaśasinamtiladmaipujitavāṃs 以七青蓮花作梵志持供 aptabhirmāṇavastadādvityāsaṃkhe yāva[sānaṃ] 8 Pujitomaṇiratnenasunetrolokanāya 曾作長者時有佛名善眼 9–II 2 kavihāreṇacaramyeṇaśreṣṭhibhūte 我以摩尼寶供養此如來 na me tadā 9 Rājñasutāhamabhūvanpūrvamanyā 乃往過去世曾為王子時 1–I 3 sujatiṣubhr[āta]raṃRatnaśikhisaṃ 寶髻佛兄弟我以燈明施 dipatailaupasthitaḥprathamāṃkhe yāvasāna 10 Uttaromāṇavo`bhūvaṃkāśyapodvip 昔為梵志名最勝於兩足尊迦葉佛 13–III 6 adottame-[nad]i[p]ālevacaśrutvāpra 由聞喜護所說語乃得出家修淨意 vrajyāyākṛtāmatiḥtṛtiyāsaṃkheyas arvagunābhyāsāvasānaḥ 11 vāsiṣthasyāgamanaṃśrutvāśreṣṭhip 昔為商人時聞佛名淨住 12–III 7 ritimanābhavanudyānaṃmaṇḍayitā 欲來造寺舍園苑毘訶羅 cavihāraṃkārayāmyahaṃ 12 Damaged 8

Table 2. (continued)

Theme Inscriptions on the paintings Equivalence in the Sequence Theme nos. in Mūlasarvāstivāda in the nos. in Cave 9 Bhaiṣajyavastu text Cave 4 13 ṛṣibhūtohyupātiṣṭhaṃ[s]…trelokanā 往昔作仙人見善眼世尊 2–I 11 yakamvalkalenamanāpenāpenācchā 以著樹皮衣持施覆其身 dito …nāmayā 14 Aṅgirasamahaṃdṛṣṭvānadidir 有佛欲渡河我當作舡師 10–II 12 amupāgatamsārthavāhena me 見佛心歡喜渡佛到彼岸 nāvānadyāmuttaritomunim 15 [vidhi]vat pūjitabuddh(o)… 我昔為國王種種供養佛 11–III 13 [punamanorathaḥ] 滿足皆隨意起塔名法王 dharmarājya[ṃ] ca me (prāptaṃrā) jabhūtenaśraddhayā of one asaṅkhya, which Buddha is selected and which one goes first all seem to matter little. As a result, in the praṇidhāna paintings of such stories the sequence and the selection of the themes appear to be somewhat disordered and even chaotic. Figure 13 shows the layout of Bezeklik Cave 9 and the location of the 15 themes. The fourth and fifth columns in Table 2 show their equivalent sequence in the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastua and in Bezeklik Cave 4 respectively.11 The Arabic numbers in Table 2 (from 1 to 13) in column 4 indicates the sequence of the thirteen events in the text and the Roman numbers (I, II, and III) mark which asaṅkhya an event belonged to. Two themes (Themes 9 and13) are chosen from the first asaṅkhya, three themes for the third asaṅkhya (Themes 10, 11, 15), and the rest are all from the second asaṅkhya. In Bezeklik Cave 4, these themes are arranged in a rather different sequence from that in Cave 9, if there is a sequence at all. It seems to be random as to which event was chosen to be depicted on which location in a cave. Although the end of each asaṅkhya is marked in the inscription, they are slightly different from the text. In Bezeklik Cave 9, Theme 9, inscribed as the end of the firstasaṅkhya, is not the last Buddha of that asaṅkhya. And Theme 7, which marks the end of second asaṅkhya, is the beginning of the third asaṅkhya in the text. The Mūlasarvāstivāda is a ‘Hīnayāna’ school, and is generally considered to be a sub-sect of the Sarvāstivāda school. The two are closely intertwined on doctrinal matters. As observed by Bart Dessein, the name ‘Mūlasarvāstivāda’ actu- ally did not appear anywhere before the seventh century. Even in the first half of the seventh century, the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (600–664), in the record of his travels in India, only mentioned Sarvāstivāda, not Mūlasarvāstivāda. It was fifty years later when Yijing (635–713), who also traveled in India, mentioned Mūlasarvāstivāda for the first time (Willemen et al. 1998, 85). The relationship of the two and whether or not they are in fact the same person are hotly debated among scholars, which I shall not discuss further here. It is remarkable that Mūlasarvāstivāda only appears to be a vinaya school (Willemen et al. 1998, 125).

11. The structure and content of these verses are similar to each other. The Sanskrit and Chinese versions are the same. Here is the translation of the first verse: ‘I used to be a king [during the time when]/there was a Buddha called Bhāhman/with the bath house and incensed water/[I] bathed the Buddha’.

Although the Mūlasarvāstivādin vinayapiṭaka is old, the legends in its texts are elab- orate and might have been inserted later (Frauwallner 1956, 25–26; Hiraoka 1998, 420). No extant manuscripts of the Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya can be dated before the seventh century. Those in the Chinese and Tibetan canons were all translated in the eighth and ninth centuries. Many manuscripts of the Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya in Sanskrit were found at Gilgit and they cannot be dated earlier than the seventh century. The bodhisattva doctrine, emerging in early Buddhism, became part of the foundation of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It is possible that the section relat- ing to praṇidhāna paintings was inserted into Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya at a later time after the text was first compiled. ‘Hīnayāna’ and ‘Mahāyāna’ are oversimpli- fied terms that are still commonly used today. Whether or not we accept these troublesome outdated terms, it is still necessary and helpful to seek an explana- tion that reveals the complexity of Buddhist practice regarding how the bodhisattva doctrine, which is understood to be integral to and in some ways definitive of Mahāyāna Buddhism, appeared in the text of a late ‘Hīnayāna’ school. The Mahāyāna movement in Buddhist history has been a focal point of study for decades. It has become clear that the Mahāyāna movement consists of a number of originally separate movements that emerged in Buddhism and resulted in the formation of new doctrines, new theories and an emphasis on choosing the bodhisattva path with the ultimate goal of achieving Buddhahood. In regard to the presence of a bodhisattva doctrine in a vinaya of a ‘Hīnayāna’ school, I would like to adopt Heinz�� Berchert’s perspective: that the development of different schools (vāda), such as the Mūlasarvāstivāda, derived from a discrepancy in monastic rules (vinaya), and not from different paths of salvation, i.e. whether to take the bodhisattva path, or the bodhisattvayāna, a term which eventually was replaced by the term Mahāyāna (Bechert 1973, 6–18). What makes a monk a Mūlasarvāstivādin is based on whether he follows the Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya. It was possible for someone who followed the Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya to accept the bodhisattva doctrine. In the Tufan caves, the praṇidhāna paintings are subordinate decorations in a hall. The main image is Avalokiteśvara in Bezeklik Caves 4 and 9, Bhaiṣajyaguru jingbian (painting based on a sūtra on Bhaiṣajyaguru) in Bezeklik Cave 8, and the parinirvāṇa in Bezeklik Caves 19 and 20. Overall Turfan Buddhism of this period of time is Mahāyāna. Nevertheless, it is possible that the praṇidhāna paintings were inspired from a Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya, the manuscripts of which were found in the east Central Asian area (Waldschmidt et al. 1979, 12–33). The presence of the praṇidhāna paintings is not enough to define the local Buddhist community as ‘Mahāyānists’. That said, the Mūlasarvāstivādin vinaya texts are monumentally voluminous. It is difficult to imagine that a few pages that list offerings made to past Buddhas were singled out in such a huge body of vinaya texts and became so important in Buddhist art in Turfan. The possibility cannot be excluded that another text similar to the related section of the Bhaiṣajyavastu or an independent text extracted from the Bhaiṣajyavastu may have existed, and this may show Mahāyāna tendencies. CONCLUding remarks Stories of the Buddha’s previous incarnations have been popular and effective in the transmission of Buddhism and in spreading Buddhist teachings. They can be

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2012 Reshaping the Jātaka Stories 81 more appealing to common folk and easier for them to understand than techni- cal or abstract doctrine. In visual representations, images of standard jātaka stories were prevalent in early Indian Buddhist art but faded away when Mahāyāna Buddhism became dominant, especially in East Asia. However, representations of the Buddha’s birth stories were used as one of the major themes decorating walls in Buddhist caves in Kucha and Turfan. Those Kucha and Turfan paintings appear in rather different formats than jātaka images in early Indian Buddhist art and they are also different from each other. Such different styles of representations reflect different characteristics and types of stories, which have been compiled and reshaped over and over again into different texts for different teachings throughout the history of Buddhism. BIBLIOGRAPHY T 152 Liudu jijing六度集經 (*Ṣaṭ-pāramitā-saṃgraha-sūtra). Trans.*Saṅghapāla, third century. T 200 Zhuanji baiyuan jing撰集百緣經(Avadāna-śataka). Trans. Zhiqian支謙, 222–280 CE. T 202 Xianyujing賢愚經 (The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish). Trans. Dharmaśikṣa or Prajñābodhi慧覺 (Huijue), 424–452 CE. T 1448 Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhaiṣajyavastu. Trans. Yijing, 695–713 CE. T 1451 Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayakṣudrakavastu. Trans. Yijing, 695–713 CE.

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