The Tun-huang caves are the sparkle of Buddhist art over the centuries. Situated at the foot of the Mountain of Singing Sands, they are the brush of the Buddha, where an itinerant monk Yeh-tsun watched the irridescent peaks in the sheen of blue satin, settled down to excavate the first cave in AD 344, and to paint its walls with colours brought by birds as the folk legend has it. Speechless with joy, he had begun a long journey of a thousand years of Buddhist meditation in the dazzling ecstasies of murals, scrolls and sculptures. This book reproduces and describes for the first time the paintings from Tun-huang in the National Museum, New Delhi. The 143 best scrolls have been narrated whose colours are still radiant images of the divine. The National Museum is one of the three major repositories of the Tun-huang paintings, the others being the British Museum London and the Muse Guimet, Paris. While the two latter collections have been published, this book fulfills a long-felt need and will cover a major lacuna of research in presenting the third large repository. The introduction traces the history of Tun-huang from the dreams of Chinese emperors to control the Deep Sands, the role of Yeh-chihs, the excavation of the first cave, the folk legends, the iconography of the paintings, the three periods of the art of murals from AD 397-1368, etc. The scrolls from Tun-huang are the charm of these caverns that once drew humans to their depths.

Lokesh Chandra is an internationally renowned scholar of Tibetan, Mongolian and Sino-Japanese Buddhism. A prolific writer, he has to his credit 600 works, including critical editions of classical texts in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese and Old Javanese language. Among them are classics like the Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary, Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature, Buddhist Iconography of Tibet and the Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography in 15 volumes. Lokesh Chandra was nominated by the President of India to the Parliament in 1974-80, and again in 1980-86. He has been Vice-President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research. Presently he is Director, International Academy of Indian Culture.


Nirmala Sharma is an Art Historian and Professor of Buddhist studies at the International Academy of Indian Culture, New Delhi. She is working on the project of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts on Iconography of the mandalas of the Dukhang of Alchi. She has two masters degree, one in Fine Arts and the other in Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology and her PhD thesis is on the Ragamala paintings. She has also been a senior fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies. With 27 years of teaching experience at the post graduate level, she has delivered lectures on Indian Art and Culture to IFS probationers at New Delhi, School of International Studies, Nirma University, Russian Centre for Science and Culture to students of Osaka in India. She has read papers in Indonesia on the Borobudur, on the Roerichs at Moscow, on Buddhist sculptures at Budapest, at the Dunhuang Academy and in several places in India. She is a member of The Association of British Scholars and the Programme Advisory committee at the IGNCA and has travelled extensively to Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Indonesia, Russia, Hungary, China and Central Asia (Silk Route), and Taiwan to attend seminars and conduct field studies. Her books include Kumarajiva: The Transcreator of Buddhist Chinese Diction, Bamiyan, Hariti and Kindred Iconics, The Twin Mandalas of Vairocana in Japanese Iconography, and Ragamala Paintings.

PERFACE 7
TUN-HUANG OVER THE CENTURIES
Terror of the terrain and quest of the beyond 13
The deep sands and imperial dreams 13
Emperor Mu (r. 1001-945 BC),
Emperor Ch'ien Shih-huang-ti (r. 221-208 BC),
Emperor Wu (r. 140-87 BC), Chang Ch'ien, Hsiung-nu defeated in 119 BC, Four Commanderies in 111 BC
Permanent Chinese Settlement in the Kansu Corridor 15
Yueh-Chih introduced Buddhist Sutras 16
Yueh-Chih Dharmaraksa (AD 230-308, active in 268-308)
as the first great translator 17
The Sutra Route 19
Khotan as a source of jade and sutras 19
Tun-huang in a Niya document of AD 269 20
TUN- HUANG: GALAXY OF DIVINE IMAGES
Yueh-ts'us's disciple excavates the first cave in Ad 366 21
Avatamsaka and Tun-huang 22
Radiant memories in folk legends 22
Five-colour Maiden 23
Drops of amrta tipped off by Avalokitesvara in the river near Tun- huang 24
First period of the caves (AD 397-581) 24
Early Caves 25
Northern Wei (AD 439-534) 25
Sung-yun of Tun-huang 26
Western Wei (AD 535-556) 26
Second period of the Caves (AD 581-907) 28
Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618) 29
Early T'ang (ADD 618-704) 31
The Northern and Southern Colossi 33
Tun-huang as a strategic centre (AD 705-780) 34
Flourishing T'ang (AD 705-780) 34
Middle T'ang when Tibetans rule Tun- huang from AD 781 to 847 35
Late T'ang (AD 848-907) 38
Third period of the caves (AD 907-1368) 39
Tun- huang as the diaspora of Khotan after its Islamisation 40
Tiger Monk 42
Jade beauties to flying devis 45
Thousand Buddhas 48
TUN-HUANG PAINTINGS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
Lord Buddha (ill. 1-10) 51
Famous Buddhist images (ill. 11) 62
Amitabha: Buddha of Infinite Light (ill. 12-21) 82
Bhaisajyaguru: the Buddha of Healing (ill. 22) 99
Maitreya Bodhisattva (ill. 23) 106
Avalokitesvara: the Supernal Compassion (ill. 24-35) 108
Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara (ill. 37-44) 126
Thousand- armed Avalokitesvara: Kinesis of the Measureless (ill. 45-51) 138
Sun-Moon Analokitesvara (ill. 52-55) 161
Tiger Monk 168
Manjusl (ill.57-59) 170
Ksitigarbha (ill. 60-63) 174
Five Transcendental Bodhisattvas (ill. 64-68) 182
Votive Bodhisattvas (ill. 69-130) 190
The Four Lokapalas (ill.131-140) 242
Vajrapani Dharmapala (ill. 141-142) 256
Seven Treasures of the State (ill. 143) 258
LITERATURE CITED 259
CHRONOLOGICAL FOOTHOLDS 264
CHINESE DYNASTIES 267
CONCORDANCE OF CH., STEIN, NATIONAL MUSEUM AND BOOK NUMBERS 268