The present article is divided into two sections. The first deals with Cave no. 14, the Vairocana Practice Hall, in six different aspects: 1. The structure of its images; 2. The contents of its pillar; 3. The relationship between the Vairocana Practice Hall and the Huayan jing transformation tableau; 4. An analysis of the Mogao Huayan jing transformation tableau’s content and structure; 5. A comparison of the image structures of the Vairocana Practice Hall imagery and the Huayan jing transformation tableau; 6. An analysis of the Japanese image of the Huayan oceanic convocation of spiritual friends. From these, two conclusions can be drawn. First, source material for Cave 14 comes from the transformation tableau “Seven places and nine meetings.” Second, imagery on the second grouping on the right side of Cave 14 is similar to the Japanese image in terms of the form of Vairocana, Mañjuśrī, and Samantabhadra. These images have precursors from an earlier period in the imagery of the
The second section of this paper addresses six aspects of the Perfect Enlightenment Practice Hall in Cave 29: 1. Imagery in the
In a side-by-side comparison of the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment transformation tableau and the Huayan convocation imagery found at Anyue and Dazu, both have an incarnation of Master Liu as buddha on their crowns. The sixth section of the second part of this paper, which deals with the “Sixth Patriarch’s Transmission of the Esoteric Seal,” looks at the close relationship between the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment and folk esoteric Buddhism in
Key words:
Vairocana practice hall imagery; Huayan paintings;