Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) – A study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi

Megan Bryson

The Great DhÄranÌ£Ä« on Immaculately Pure Light (Wugou jingguang da tuoluoni jing, T 1024) was used extensively in Korea during the middle and late periods of Silla (668-935) after its introduction in the early eighth century. Although some scholars maintain that it provides evidence of Tantric or Esoteric Buddhism or the synthesis of Pure Land and Tantrism in Silla, my research indicates instead that the dhÄranÌ£Ä« and ritual procedures contained in this sÅ«tra were mainstream MahÄyÄna practices more closely associated with repentance practices in medieval East Asian Buddhism. Tantric/Esoteric Buddhism should be defined as consisting of ritual procedures such as initiations or coronations, graduated systems of meditation, and procedures using dhÄranÌ£Ä« in the recreation of the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha. The language of the Great DhÄranÌ£Ä« provides little internal evidence of such conclusively Tantric or Esoteric elements, especially because many of the procedures...

This is an updated version of "Taishō Volumes 18–21," in Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen, and Richard K. Payne, eds., Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2011), pp. 27–36, together with the bibliography, which in the original publication was incorporated into the bibliography at the end of the volume. Last updated 11 April 2019.

In the propagation and spread of Buddhism throughout Asia, jātaka and avadāna narratives played a decisive role, both in the form of texts and iconographical representations. In this paper I will focus on another set of narratives which enjoyed great popularity in the Dūnhuáng area during the later Tang and Five Dynasties period, dealing with historical projections concerning the origin and transmission of Buddhism. In this stories, “Auspicious Statues” (ruìxiàng 瑞像) play a key role. These “living” statues were thought to have moved from Indian monasteries to Khotan and other regions, serving as agents of the transmission of the Dharma in these areas. Besides reflecting religious key concern during that period, the historical narratives on the spread of Buddhism also give witness to the close diplomatic and family relations between Dunhuang and the Kingdom of Khotan during that period. The uploaded version is the final version.

JIABS Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume 35 Number 1–2 2012 (2013) JIABS Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume 35 Number 1–2 2012 (2013) Articles Megan BRYSON Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) – A study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Thomas CRUIJSEN, Arlo GRIFFITHS, Marijke J. KLOKKE The cult of the Buddhist dhāraṇī deity Mahāpratisarā along the Maritime Silk Route: New epigraphical and iconographic evidence from the Indonesian Archipelago . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Roderick ORLINA Epigraphical evidence for the cult of Mahāpratisarā in the Philippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Vincent ELTSCHINGER A vagho a and his canonical sources II – Ya as, the Kā yapa brothers and the Buddha’s arrival in Rājagha (Buddhacarita 16.3–71) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Paul K. NIETUPSKI Atha niryāṇavṛttam: Reﬂections on the ﬁrst sūtra and the opening passages of Guṇaprabha’s Vinayasūtra and Autocommentary – With reference to Indian and Tibetan commentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Reiko OHNUMA An elephant good to think – The Buddha in Pārileyyaka forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 2 Contents Jin Y. PARK A Huayanist reading of the Lotus Sūtra – The case of Li Tongxuan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Barbara GERKE ‘Treating the aged’ and ‘Maintaining health’ – Locating bcud len practices in the four Tibetan medical tantras . . . . . . 329 Eviatar SHULMAN The A hakavagga as Buddhist poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chizuko YOSHIMIZU Reasoning-for-others in Candrakīrti’s Madhyamaka thought . . . 363 413 • Notes on the contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) A study and translation of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi Megan Bryson Temples throughout Dali Prefecture in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province contain statues of a fearsome ﬁgure with a wrathful expression, wearing tiger skins and serpents, his body painted dark blue or black. This is the god Mahākāla, whose name translates as “Great Black God” (Dahei tianshen 大神) in Chinese, though many in Dali identify him merely as the “local lord” (tuzhu 土主) or “monastery [guardian]” (qielan 伽藍; Skt. saṃghārāma). In some respects, Mahākāla’s popularity in Dali is expected: he has been an important part of Buddhist pantheons in India, Southeast Asia, Tibet, and Japan. However, he has not featured prominently in extant sources from Chinese Buddhism. Mahākāla’s prominence in Dali Buddhism raises questions about the relationship between Dali Buddhism and the Buddhist traditions of the surrounding regions of Tibet, China, Southeast Asia, and India. We can trace Mahākāla’s cult in Dali to the Dali kingdom, which lasted between 937 and 1253, roughly contemporaneous with the Song dynasty (960–1279). This is signiﬁcant because the Mongol conquest of both the Song and Dali regimes introduced the Tibetan cult of Mahākāla to those areas. Surviving materials from the Dali kingdom on Mahākāla worship show how Mahākāla was represented prior to this point. Sources from the Dali kingdom show that Mahākāla was one of the most important deities for the court, second perhaps only to the Acuoye 嵯耶 (Skt. ajaya) form of Guanyin that survives in statues and paintings from the Nanzhao through Dali kingdoms. While independent images of Acuoye Guanyin outnumber those Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume 35 • Number 1–2 • 2012 (2013) pp. 3–69 4 Megan Bryson of Mahākāla (who usually appears with other deities, especially Vai ravaṇa), Acuoye Guanyin only features in one extant textual source, the early tenth-century Nanzhao tuzhuan 南詔圖傳 [Illustrated History of Nanzhao], while Mahākāla appears prominently in both texts and art from the Dali kingdom. Famous works of Dali kingdom art, such as the Fanxiang juan 像卷 [Roll of Buddhist Images] painting and the grottoes of Shibao shan 石寶山 (Stone Treasure Mountain) include images of Mahākāla alongside other Buddhist ﬁgures. Mahākāla also features in three of the six ritual texts from the Dali kingdom that have not been found elsewhere: in two of these texts, which contain food-distribution rituals, he appears in the list of deities invited to the ritual area; the third text centers around seven forms of Mahākāla, as well as his consort. In examining Mahākāla’s role in Dali kingdom Buddhism I will focus on this third ritual text. Its title has been lost, so I follow the contemporary scholar Hou Chong in calling it Dahei tianshen daochang yi 大神道場儀 [Rituals of the Bodhimaṇḍa of the Great Black God]. By analyzing this text in relation to other sources for Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom, I will argue that Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom drew primarily from the Buddhism of the Tang and Song, despite Mahākāla’s relative obscurity in Tang-Song Buddhism. In this way, Dali Buddhists resembled Japanese Buddhists in drawing on elements of Tang-Song Buddhism that either were lost or did not generate a prominent Mahākāla cult in China. In fact, I hypothesize that Dali Buddhists worshiped Mahākāla precisely because he did not play a prominent role in Tang and Song Buddhism, and could thus lend his protective powers especially to the Dali court. Mahākāla in broader context Mahākāla is one of many non-Buddhist Indian deities that Buddhists ‘converted’ to guard the dharma. He was originally a aiva god, the male counterpart of the better known Kālī, but rose to greater prominence in Buddhism, where he protects the teachings from Tibet to Japan. Mahākāla’s early associations with war and wealth Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 5 carried over into his later incarnations: he retains a wrathful appearance in Tantric contexts, but casts a jolly ﬁgure as one of the seven gods of fortune in Japan. He was known in Southeast Asian Hinduism, where his aiva origins remained an important part of his identity, but I have found no examples of Buddhist Mahākāla images in Southeast Asia, including the Pyū and Bagan kingdoms of modern-day Burma that had contact with the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms.1 It is possible that Mahākāla was worshiped in the esoteric Buddhism of these Burmese kingdoms, as some ﬁgures with similar iconography have survived, but I have not seen direct evidence of this.2 Unsurprisingly, most scholarship on Mahākāla focuses on his cult in the Tantric Buddhism of Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia, and in the Buddhism of Japan, where he appears in both esoteric and non-esoteric contexts.3 The terms ‘Tantrism’ and ‘esoteric Buddhism’ have challenged scholars seeking to ﬁnd a heuristically useful but accurate label for traditions that did not have consistent designations throughout their histories. While some studies use ‘Tantric’ in a Chinese context, scholarly consensus has shifted toward using ‘esoteric Buddhism’ when discussing East Asia. Hugh Urban has pointed out that the idea of Tantrism as a discrete tradition comes from a modern colonial context, which means there is a danger of anachronistically 1 For example, in Java Mahākāla appeared alongside Nandī vara (another incarnation of iva) as the guardian of aiva temples. Reichle 2007: 176. 2 The late-eleventh-century Abèyadana Temple in Bagan includes several images that conform to esoteric Buddhist iconography, including a six-armed wrathful deity that holds many of Mahākāla’s implements. See Luce 1970: pl. 234f. 3 There are not many book-length studies of Mahākāla. Iyanaga Nobumi’s study of Mahākāla’s transformations from India to Japan, Daikokuten hens 大変相 is the most extensive, as Iyanaga examines scriptural sources and images related to Mahākāla from India to Japan. William Stablein and Samuel Grupper each wrote dissertations on Mahākāla worship in Vajrayāna Buddhism, with Stablein studying a Nepalese version of the Mahākālatantra, and Grupper examining how the Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty (1644– 1911) used Mahākāla worship to support their political authority. See Stablein 1976 and Grupper 1980. 6 Megan Bryson reading the modern notion of Tantrism back into premodern Asia.4 Even if one uses the concept of Tantrism or Tantric Buddhism with attention to its historical applicability, there are still problems with applying it to East Asia because, unlike in South Asia, texts written in Sinitic script did not use the bibliographic designation tantra.5 ‘Esoteric Buddhism’ hews more closely to the terminology used in East Asia, particularly the concept of mi 密 or bimi 祕密, “secret” or “esoteric.” However, mi does not always refer to the distinctive tradition of esoteric Buddhism, but can also refer to Mahāyāna teachings more broadly.6 Charles Orzech has argued compellingly that ‘esoteric Buddhism’ is a useful category, but one that should be used with careful attention to historical context and native usage.7 Mahākāla’s worship in diﬀerent Buddhist traditions highlights the distinction between Tantric and esoteric Buddhism. As Christian Wedemeyer notes, transgression is a key theme in Tantric texts, but transgression is less of a deﬁning characteristic in East Asian esoteric Buddhism.8 Tantric Mahākāla texts contain more transgressive content than esoteric Mahākāla texts that circulated in East Asia. For example, the Tibetan Mahākāla Tantra prescribes rituals for practitioners to access the god’s power, both in terms of attaining liberation and acquiring the ability to subdue enemies. These rituals include sexual practices and the use of alcohol, bones, and human ﬂesh, which conforms to Mahākāla’s wrathful image. This form of Mahākāla spread throughout the Tantric Buddhist world and became a patron deity of the Mongol and Manchu courts that governed China in the Yuan and Qing dynasties, respectively. Buddhist texts from the Tangut Xia dynasty (1038–1227) also include Tantric rituals centered on Mahākāla. 4 Urban 2003. Orzech et al. 2011b: 8–10. 6 Orzech 2012: 306–307. 7 Orzech 2006: 69. 8 Wedemeyer 2013: 9. The issue of transgression in East Asian esoteric Buddhism requires more attention, as scholars assuming the dominance of Confucian prudishness may not have noticed important examples. 5 Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 7 ‘Esoteric Buddhism’ can itself be di cult to deﬁne, though the polythetic approach – identifying a broad set of characteristics that “provide an interrelated web of parameters that serve in aggregate to deﬁne speciﬁc kinds of category” – oﬀers a promising solution.9 In this approach, esoteric Buddhism encompasses various characteristics, including such practices as mantra, mudrā, and maṇḍala, but no single characteristic is necessary to deﬁne material as ‘esoteric.’ The meaning of esoteric as ‘secret’ also bears on the deﬁnition of esoteric Buddhism: though not all material in this category requires initiation, the most advanced teachings of the tradition remain secret to the uninitiated.10 Until recently, the study of esoteric Buddhism (especially as mijiao or mikky 密教) in Tang through Song China adopted sectarian taxonomies from later Japanese Shingon Buddhism or Tibetan Buddhism. Scholars such as Robert Sharf and Richard McBride have rightly criticized this on the grounds that such sectarian institutions did not exist in Chinese Buddhism.11 However, this does not negate the existence of a distinct tradition understood as such by Buddhists of the Tang through Song dynasties. Henrik Sørensen’s comparison of Chinese esoteric Buddhism to Pure Land Buddhism is instructive because it oﬀers a model for understanding a distinct though non-sectarian movement.12 In East Asian esoteric Buddhism Mahākāla is best known in Japan. The only text devoted to Mahākāla in the Taish canon is the Daikoku tenjin h 大神法 [Rituals of the Great Black God], which is probably a Japanese creation.13 Mahākāla was known in both the esoteric and exoteric traditions of Japanese Buddhism, where he retained his wrathful appearance and continued to serve as a dharma guardian in some contexts (for example, in the Tendai and Nichiren schools). Japanese Buddhists additionally turned 9 Davidson 2002: 119. Payne 2006: 9–12. Orzech has embraced this approach in his recent work on esoteric Buddhism in China. 10 Sørensen 2011c: 166–167. 11 Sharf 2002; McBride 2004. 12 Sørensen 2011c: 175. 13 Iyanaga 2002: 348–49. 8 Megan Bryson Mahākāla into a more benign ﬁgure who now numbers among the seven gods of fortune. Iyanaga Nobumi, in his in-depth study of this transformation, compares the Japanese Daikokuten to Santa Claus, as both carry large bags and travel long distances.14 Though parts of the Daikoku tenjin h might have been composed in Japan, this text mainly consists of excerpts about Mahākāla from Sinitic scriptures that were translated in China, which means that it sheds light on Mahākāla worship in China up to the Song dynasty. The Daikoku tenjin h and other texts in the Taish suggest that Mahākāla was worshiped in China, and that some materials related to his cult were lost. Yijing 義淨 (635–713) wrote in his Nanhai jiguinei fazhuan 南海寄歸內法傳 [Record of the Buddhist Dharma Sent Home from the Southern Seas] that Mahākāla is “still unknown north of the Huai [River], but is enshrined in several places in Jiangnan.”15 Mahākāla was probably a more prominent deity in Tang through Song China than extant sources indicate, but I see little evidence that his cult received signiﬁcant attention, even in comparison to similar Indian dharma guardians such as Vai ravaṇa and Hārītī. Hārītī’s trajectory in China mirrors Mahākāla’s in many respects – they faded after the Song dynasty and received more attention in Tibet and Japan – but texts and art from the Tang through Song dynasties attest to the existence of an independent cult to her.16 In contrast, Mahākāla is remarkably absent from artistic materials and texts outside the Taish prior to the Yuan dynasty. Texts in the Taish canon, including the Daikoku tenjin h , present a consistent image of Mahākāla as a guardian of the dharma 14 Ibid.: 509. In Chinese: 淮雖復無, 南多有置處. Nanhai jiguinei fazhuan, T. 2125p209c10. 16 References to Hārītī (usually as Guizimu鬼子母, “Mother of Demons,” or Jiuzimu 九子母, “Mother of Nine Sons”) in her role as fertility goddess and guardian deity appear in the ﬁfth-century Yiyuan, Tang-dynasty dedicatory inscriptions, and the Song-dynasty Taiping guangji, among others; many of these records mention paintings and statues of Hārītī, and statues of her from the Song dynasty can still be found at Dazu and Bazhong. 15 Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 9 who in the context of esoteric Buddhism can also be an incarnation of the supreme buddha Mahāvairocana. Yixing’s commentary on the Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhisūtra identiﬁes Mahākāla as the wrathful form Mahāvairocana takes when subduing demons, and Mahākāla appears in Mahāvairocana’s maṇḍala.17 When Mahākāla appears as a dharma guardian, he joins other Indian deities such as Mahe vara, Hārītī, Vināyaka, and Vai ravaṇa that protect practitioners who uphold the text.18 Like these other Indian deities commissioned to protect the dharma, Mahākāla remains an ambivalent ﬁgure. In Amoghavajra’s translation of the Renwang huguo boreboluomiduo jing (hereafter Renwang jing) the “Great Black God, Mahākāla of the Graveyard” receives the oﬀering of 1000 heads that Prince Spotted-Foot makes at the behest of his heterodox guru.19 Liangbi, in his commentary on this text, identiﬁes Mahākāla as an incarnation of Mahe vara, who like Mahākāla arose in India as an avatar of iva.20 In addition to materials from Tibet, Japan, and China, Mahākāla appears in texts and art from Central Asia in the ninth and tenth centuries. Paintings of the Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Avalokite vara at Dunhuang include Mahākāla as a secondary ﬁgure.21 Manuscripts and paintings from Dunhuang also identify him as one of the eight protector deities of the kingdom of Khotan, a group that includes Vai ravaṇa.22 Mahākāla is depicted in cave 26 at Bezeklik in his wrathful form, seated on a bull and stretching an elephant hide behind him.23 These images attest to Mahākāla’s role as dharma guardian and their iconography matches most descriptions of the god in the Taish canon. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 T. 1796p687b27; T. 852p123c11. See T. 1104p470b23–24 and p472a14; T. 1153p624b18; T. 1154p637c9–10. T. 246p840b5ﬀ. T. 1709p490b2–3. See Stein painting 35.Ch.lvi.0019 and Musée Guimet no. 17659. Zhang 2005: 50, 53–54. Gaulier et al. 1976: 52, pl. 116. 10 Megan Bryson Certain attributes follow Mahākāla from India to Tibet, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, China, and Japan: he is a guardian of the dharma connected to other aiva deities, he is associated with war and wealth, and he often appears as a wrathful ﬁgure in an esoteric context. However, diﬀerences in iconography, function, and textual sources anchor Mahākāla to diﬀerent regional traditions. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom draws on textual and iconographic traditions from surrounding areas, but also constitutes a distinctive tradition with its own rituals, texts, and images. There have been a few short articles on Mahākāla images and texts in the Dali kingdom, but no in-depth studies. Hou Chong’s article on the Dahei tianshen daochang yi summarizes its contents and gives a brief overview of its style and genre, but Hou oﬀers little support for his claim that the text’s use of literary Chinese means it had to have been composed in China.24 The art historian Lee Yü-min incorporates some passages from the text (which she calls Dahei tian yigui 大儀軌, “Guidelines for Rituals of the Great Black God”) in her study of Mahākāla images from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms. She hypothesizes that the text was a local creation, as it does not appear outside of Dali, but only addresses the sections that relate to Mahākāla’s iconography in the Fanxiang juan.25 Most scholars who have written about Mahākāla worship in Dali have cited an account in the 1265 Ji gu Dian shuo ji 記滇說集 [Collection of Recorded Stories about Ancient Yunnan] as proof that Mahākāla was an important tutelary deity as early as the Nanzhao kingdom.26 According to this account, the devout Buddhist king Shengluopi 晟羅皮 (r. 713–728) commissioned a statue of the god from Sichuan to protect the newly built city wall of Dian (modern-day Kunming).27 I do not foreclose the possibility that Nanzhao rulers worshiped Mahākāla – the earliest dated Mahākāla image comes from the Nanzhao kingdom, and the 24 25 26 27 Hou 1994: 54. Lee 1995: 25–27. See Yang Fuxue 2002: 232; Fu 2003: 159; Yang Zhengye 1994: 126. Ji gu Dian shuo ji, p. 351. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 11 Dali rulers adopted much of the politico-religious practices of the Nanzhao kings – but the late date of this text weakens its reliability. Other studies of Mahākāla worship in Dali mix later materials for Mahākāla worship (iconography, legends) with Dali kingdom materials, leaving a muddy picture of what Mahākāla worship looked like in the Dali kingdom.28 Though extant sources may not allow for a crystal clear image of Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom, they at least provide a solid outline that will contribute to our understanding of Dali kingdom Buddhism as a whole. This study of Mahākāla aims to avoid the methodological sloppiness that plagues most scholarship on this god’s Dali kingdom cult. Methodological considerations In trying to understand the Mahākāla cult in the Dali kingdom I focus on the Dahei tianshen daochang yi because it is the most complete work on Mahākāla worship from this period. I read it in relation to other textual and artistic works from the Dali kingdom, as well as texts and art on similar topics or in similar genres from surrounding Buddhist traditions. The former shows that the Mahākāla cult in the Dali kingdom was part of a cohesive tradition; the latter shows how Dali kingdom elites selectively drew from neighboring Buddhist traditions in developing their own form of Buddhism. Dali’s geographical position has led some scholars to see its culture and religion as highly eclectic, as if inﬂuence from Southeast Asia, India, Tibet, and China ﬂowed equally into the region.29 People in the Dali kingdom may not have controlled which religious traditions they encountered, but they did choose to adopt certain traditions over others. Extant materials from the Dali kingdom strongly suggest that Dali Buddhists did not draw equally from surrounding Buddhist traditions, but heavily favored Chinese 28 Yang Fuxue uses the Qing record Bo gu tongji qianshu to support his claim that Nanzhao rulers worshiped Mahākāla. See Yang Fuxue 2002: 231. Tian Hong cites the Kangxi-era Yunnan tongzhi to make the same point (Tian 1991: 218). 29 See Howard 1996: 231; Yü 1991: 28; Sørensen 2011b: 379; Li Donghong 2000: 13. 12 Megan Bryson Buddhism. Historical and political factors certainly played a role in this – Chinese dynasties established outposts in Yunnan as early as the Han dynasty (206 BCE–221 CE) – but the Nanzhao rulers had extensive contact with Tibet and Pyū, showing that they did have a choice in where they looked for Buddhist materials. Surviving materials for Mahākāla worship from the Dali kingdom come from the ruling class, either the court or high o cials. The Dahei tianshen daochang yi and two other ritual texts in which Mahākāla appears come from Fazang si 法寺, the family temple of the Dong 董 clan, which served as national preceptors under the Dali kingdom.30 The royal provenance of the Fanxiang juan is clear: it opens with an image of its sponsor, the king Duan Zhixing 段智 (r. 1172–1199), followed by his imperial retinue, with the colophon, “Painted [for] the Lizhen Emperor and Piaoxin,” referring to Duan Zhixing with the title of his reign era and the Burmese title piaoxin 驃信.31 Other images of Mahākāla either appear at sites sponsored by Dali kingdom elites or associated with the royal family, such as Shibao shan and Qianxun ta 千塔 (Thousand League Stūpa), or have inscriptions that identify their sponsors as high o cials. Though today Mahākāla images appear in temples throughout the Dali region, there is no way to determine how widespread Mahākāla worship was during the Dali kingdom, or whether Mahākāla worship was consistent throughout Dali society. Scholarship on the Dali kingdom frequently describes the kingdom or its rulers as “Bai” , a term that today refers to the titular “nationality” (minzu 民族) of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture (Dali Baizu zizhizhou 大理族自治 ).32 However, no sources from the Dali kingdom identify its population, or rulers, as “Bai,” 30 The temple is located in Beitangtian 湯 , Fengyi Township 鳳儀鎮, approximately 20 km southeast of the modern-day Dali Prefecture Seat. 31 The text reads Lizhen huangdi piaoxin hua 利貞帝[ +票]信畫, but this would mean “Painted by the Lizhen Emperor and Piaoxin.” I follow Hou Chong in suspecting that the character wei 為, “for,” was originally written at the beginning of this colophon. Hou 2006b: 100. The title piaoxin is one that the Nanzhao rulers adopted after conquering the Pyū kingdom; it means “Pyū ruler” in Burmese. 32 See Sørensen 2011b: 379–380; Yü 1991: 28; Howard 1997: 33ﬀ. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 13 and Bai does not appear as an ethnonym until the Yuan dynasty.33 Though ethnicity can be a useful concept for thinking about premodern forms of representation, sources from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdom do not reﬂect any ethnic self-representation.34 Instead, the self-representation is religious and political. It is as a part of this politico-religious dimension of the Dali kingdom that Mahākāla worship should be approached, not as part of a distinctive ‘ethnic’ religion. Other limitations surrounding the visual and textual sources aﬀect our qualitative and quantitative knowledge about Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom. No records report how Dali elites actually used texts or images in worshipping Mahākāla, leaving an image of ideal, prescriptive Mahākāla worship, but not a description of Mahākāla worship. I locate these materials within the context of Dali kingdom history, but I primarily examine them in relation to each other and similar works from other Buddhist traditions. Diﬀerent considerations also obtain for images and textual sources. Most Mahākāla images do not include information about the artist or date of creation, let alone which iconographic model the artist used. By comparing Dali kingdom images of Mahākāla to earlier and contemporaneous images of the god from India, Tibet, Central Asia, and China, I can draw conclusions about the probable source of his iconography in Dali. However, iconography is not rooted to a single location, and even if Mahākāla images in the Dali kingdom most closely resemble those from India, such images might have entered Dali through another route. 33 In the Yunnan zhilüe 雲南志略, which was completed in 1303–04, Li Jing 李京 describes the culture of the “Bai people” (Bai ren 人), whom he says were formerly called “Bo people” (Bo ren 僰人). Yunnan zhilüe, p. 127. 34 The discourse of ethnicity emerges with the modern nation-state, so some scholars believe it anachronistic to discuss ethnicity in premodern periods. I side with scholars such as Mark Elliott and Marc Abramson who argue for the usefulness of ‘ethnicity’ in understanding premodern forms of representation, so long as it is clear that people in those periods did not invoke ‘ethnicity’ themselves. Elliott 2001: 17–18; Abramson 2008: 1ﬀ. 14 Megan Bryson Texts say more about where they came from, starting with the language in which they are written. All the extant texts from the Dali kingdom that mention Mahākāla are written in Sinitic script. Linguistic style, vocabulary, and genre also provide clues to the text’s background. Finally, the content of the text can place it within a particular Buddhist tradition. In the case of Mahākāla, the presence or absence of Tantric or esoteric content, and the nature of that content, would shed light on possible Tibetan connections. In reading the Dahei tianshen daochang yi with these questions in mind, I compare it to other Buddhist texts on similar topics and in similar genres. Though I cannot read primary sources in Sanskrit, Tibetan, or Central Asian languages, I consult secondary scholarship on Mahākāla worship in these traditions to determine if there is continuity between those Mahākāla cults and Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom. I mainly examine the Dahei tianshen daochang yi in relation to other works in Sinitic script, especially texts from the Chinese Buddhist canon. As I demonstrate below, the content and style of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi, as well as the preponderance of sources in Sinitic script, justify this emphasis. The vast majority of Buddhist scriptures from the Dali kingdom were translated or composed in China, meaning that they were written in Sinitic script and entered the Dali region from the Tang through Song. Most are popular scriptures such as the Diamond, Lotus, and Great Perfection of Wisdom sūtras; commentaries on the Flower Garland, Perfect Enlightenment, and Vimalakīrti sūtras; and scriptures associated with esoteric Buddhism like the Scripture for Humane Kings and texts for Mārīcī and Tejaprabha.35 The only non-Sinitic sources from the Dali kingdom are Sanskrit syllabaries and dhāraṇīs that circulated in Song China, and thus did not necessarily enter Dali from India.36 35 For a list of Dali kingdom scriptures, see Hou 2006a: 19–21. Both Sanskrit texts from Fazang si – a Sanskrit syllabary in Brāhmī script and what might be the Mahāpratisarāvidyārājñī-dhāraṇī – could have entered Dali from China, as similar Sanskrit texts in Japan came from China. I am grateful to Paul Harrison for identifying these texts. The many 36 Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 15 The fact that almost all surviving sources from the Dali kingdom are written in Sinitic script raises the question of whether extant Dali kingdom materials are representative of what circulated during the Dali kingdom. Texts from the pagodas Qianxun ta and Fotu ta 圖塔 (Buddha Stūpa) can be reliably dated to the Dali kingdom because the pagodas were sealed after the fall of the Dali kingdom.37 The fact that these materials were written in Sinitic script strongly suggests that they do represent the texts that circulated during the Dali kingdom. Texts and other objects from the pagodas Qianxun ta and Fotu ta can be dated to the Dali kingdom, but most Mahākāla texts and images come from other sites, raising questions about whether they, too, can be reliably dated to the Dali kingdom. Some of the Mahākāla images from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms have dates: the Fanxiang juan was ﬁnished in the 1170s; the relief carving of Mahākāla from cave 16 at Shibao shan has an inscription that dates it to 850, toward the end of the Nanzhao kingdom; and a relief carving of Mahākāla from Santai shan 山 in central Yunnan has an inscription identifying its sponsor as tanchuo 坦綽, a title used in the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms.38 Other Mahākāla images from Shibao shan and Qianxun ta can be dated to the Dali kingdom because of their iconographic similarities to Dali kingdom images and the dates of other objects from those sites. The date of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi presents a more di cult problem. Like the other ﬁve ritual texts that have only been U ṇī avijayā-dhāraṇī inscriptions on tombstones came from Dharmadeva’s (Fatian 法 ) tenth-century version of the text, which could have entered Dali from Song China or India. See Liebenthal 1947: 38; Liebenthal 1955: 57–59. 37 See Da Chongsheng si beiming bing xu 大崇聖寺碑銘並序, p. 19; Chongxiu Fotu ta ji 重修圖塔記, p. 106. 38 The inscription related to Mahākāla in cave 16 of Shibao shan appears in cave 17, which contains an image of Vai ravaṇa, but the inscription refers to both the Mahākāla in cave 16 and Vai ravaṇa. The date in the inscription is Tianqi 啟 11, during the reign of the Nanzhao king Quanfengyou 勸豐祐 (Tian 1991: 224). For the Santai shan inscription, see Lee 1995: 24; Tian 1991: 226. 16 Megan Bryson found in the Dali region, the Dahei tianshen daochang yi numbered among the texts discovered in 1956 at Fazang si. Unlike the scriptures sealed in pagodas, the scriptures of Fazang si were subject to historical vicissitudes: the Fazang si corpus contains texts from the Yuan and Ming, while some of its Dali-era scriptures were probably lost over time.39 This makes it more di cult to determine the dates of Fazang si scriptures and assess how representative they are of Dali Buddhism. The Dahei tianshen daochang yi is written on the same manuscript paper as another untitled ritual text, which Hou Chong has given the title Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi 廣無遮道場儀 [Bodhimaṇḍa Ritual of Unrestricted, Widespread Oﬀerings]. Some Chinese scholars view these as a single text, but I follow Hou in treating them separately due to the fact that the Dahei tianshen daochang yi contains red dots marking certain sections, while the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi does not. These texts appear on the reverse of a manuscript of Zongmi’s Yuanjue jing shu 覺經疏 [Commentary on the Scripture of Perfect Awakening]. The Yuanjue jing shu is missing its ﬁrst section, while the contents of the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi and Dahei tianshen daochang yi do not match up. This indicates that the Yuanjue jing shu was copied on the back of the other two texts.40 Several factors support a Dali kingdom date for the text. Zhou Yongxian and Yang Yanfu have noted that the texts’ glazed paper resembles the paper used in parts of Southern Song canons from southeast China also found at Fazang si.41 I have not had access to 39 A 1421 inscription from Fazang si recounts the history of its scriptural corpus: Dong Xian 董賢 purchased a Buddhist canon in Hangzhou in the late fourteenth century, but it was destroyed in the 1382 Ming conquest; he saved over 2000 fascicles of scriptures by storing them in a cave, then embarked to Kunming to retrieve a new canon from Dizang si and Yuantong si 通寺. Zhaozhou Nanshan Da Fazang si bei 趙南山大法寺碑, p. 32. 40 Hou 2006a: 27. 41 Zhou does not give a reason for dating the Yuanjue jing shu to the Dali kingdom, merely mentions its date in passing while classifying the ritual texts that mention Mahākāla and Baijie Shengfei as early Ming azhali scriptures (Zhou 1958: 17). Yang explained the dating of the Yuanjue jing shu Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 17 the original manuscripts of these texts, so I cannot verify whether the paper in fact dates to the Dali kingdom/Song dynasty. Hou Chong suspects that the surviving manuscript is a Ming copy, but believes the contents date to the Dali kingdom.42 He points out that the descriptions of Mahākāla and his consort in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi perfectly match their images in the Fanxiang juan, which suggests they come from the same time period. This is particularly important, because the Mongol conquest of Dali in 1253 allows for the possibility of the Tibeto-Mongolian Mahākāla entering Dali, but the image in the Fanxiang juan predates the Mongol conquest and does not reﬂect Tibetan iconographic inﬂuence. Indeed, late imperial Mahākāla images from Dali display diﬀerent iconography (though not necessarily as a result of Tibetan inﬂuence). Two additional records from after the fall of the Dali kingdom support, but do not conclusively prove, Dali kingdom dates for the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi and Dahei tianshen daochang yi. A 1326 temple record refers to a set of seven forms of Mahākāla, showing that the set in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi was known before the Ming.43 A section of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi related to Mahākāla’s consort is quoted in a 1461 inscription from Jianchuan, which also remarks that she does not appear in other scriptures.44 It thus appears that the identity of Mahākāla’s consort was unknown by the ﬁfteenth century, suggesting that the Dahei based on the similarity of its paper to paper used in the Southern Song Sixi Yuanjue 思溪覺 canon, over thirty volumes of which he claims were found at Fazang si. However, he notes that at the end of each extant volume was printed the colophon, “duquanyuan datan yuecheng zhonglang Zhao Anguo” 都勸緣大檀越忠郎趙安國 (Yang Yanfu 1985: 57). Zhao Anguo was not the sponsor of the Sixi Yuanjue canon, but the later Qisha 磧沙 canon; the Sixi Yuanjue canon was sponsored by Wang Yongcong 王永從 (He 2005: 33–34). Regardless of which canon the Fazang si volumes came from, in both cases they would date to the Southern Song or early Yuan at the latest, so Yang Yanfu’s argument about the date of the Yuanjue jing shu still stands. 42 Hou 1994: 54. 43 Qixian shan Bao’en fancha ji, p. 266. I discuss this record below. 44 Xiu Baijie Shengfei Longwang hemiao beiji 修姐聖龍王廟碑記, pp. 2–4. 18 Megan Bryson tianshen daochang yi was written earlier. Despite the sources’ limitations, there are enough surviving materials from the Dali kingdom to show a systematic tradition of Mahākāla worship, and the Dahei tianshen daochang yi is the cornerstone of that system. Its contents relate to the other two ritual texts, as well as to the artistic materials, especially the Fanxiang juan. The picture that these sources paint is not completely ﬁlled in, but it provides enough of an outline to draw conclusions about the origins of the Dali kingdom Mahākāla cult, as well as how and why Dali elites worshipped the “Great Black God.” “One body with seven manifestations, seven forms with one essence:” Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom In its current form, the Dahei tianshen daochang yi contains rituals for pratyekabuddhas and rāvakas, seven forms of Mahākāla, Mahākāla’s consort, the twenty-eight gods of the maṇḍala, and the benevolent gods of the ten directions. The sections devoted to the seven forms of Mahākāla and his consort ﬁrst identify the deity as an expedient manifestation of the dharma nature; then describe the physical appearance of the deity as it relates to Buddhist teachings; continue by explaining the speciﬁc function of the deity in question; and end with a set of verses recapitulating the prose descriptions. Most sections begin, “The ritual of [the god’s name] will be performed,” and end, “Perform empowerment with the mantra of [the god’s name].” The Dahei tianshen daochang yi resembles esoteric sādhana texts in which the practitioner visualizes and identiﬁes with the deity to attain siddhi, the fulﬁllment of a goal (Chn. chengjiu 就). Sādhana texts relate the iconographic features of the gods to Buddhist doctrine, which is also true of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi. However, the text just gives the outline of the ritual and does not provide the mantras or other ritual instructions. Extratextual knowledge would be required to actually perform the rituals. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 19 In genre, the Dahei tianshen daochang yi diﬀers from the other two Dali kingdom ritual texts that mention Mahākāla. Both the aforementioned Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi and the Wuzhe dengshi fahui yi 無遮燈食法會儀 [Dharma Assembly Ritual of Unrestricted Light and Food] (title also given by Hou Chong) are food distribution rituals in which the practitioner invites a host of deities to the ritual area to partake of the oﬀerings and bestow blessings. Each text includes Mahākāla (and his consort) in its list of deities invited to the ritual area. Both the genre of these texts and their sets of deities reﬂect Chinese inﬂuence: the gods include the “Earl of the River” Hebo, the gods of the Five Marchmounts and Four Rivers, and Deep Sands and Floating Hill.45 In fact, it is the inclusion of Mahākāla and his consort distinguishes these texts from similar food distribution manuals that circulated in China. I have found no other texts in this genre that invite Mahākāla to receive food oﬀerings. In addition to demonstrating the largely Chinese inspirations for Dali kingdom texts, the inclusion of Mahākāla and his consort in these two texts as well as the Dahei tianshen daochang yi shows that they belonged to the distinctive regional tradition of the Dali kingdom. If the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi and Wuzhe dengshi fahui yi draw on a Chinese genre, the genre of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi does not point as clearly to a speciﬁc regional tradition. Sādhana texts appear in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Sinitic script. However, the text’s language points to China. The Dahei tianshen daochang yi is written in elegant Chinese, replete with matched couplets. It uses terms that are distinctive to China, such as the Daoist “nine-cycle cinnabar” (jiuzhuan dancheng 九轉丹誠); the crow in the sun and the rabbit in the moon; yin and yang; and the moon goddess Changheng 嫦姮 (aka Chang’e 嫦娥). This does not prove that the author of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi composed the work in 45 Hebo and the gods of the Five Marchmounts and Four Rivers are tied to Chinese geography, while Deep Sands and Floating Hill ﬁrst appear in Buddhist texts from the fourth century. For the latter, see Strickmann 2002: 312–13 n. 47. Elsewhere in the texts we ﬁnd more references to Chinese deities, such as the Lord of Mount Tai, the Vermillion Bird and Dark Warrior, and the spirits of the earth and granary (sheji 社稷). 20 Megan Bryson Song territory or came from a Chinese region, but it does suggest that the author was well versed in the Chinese tradition, and that the Dahei tianshen daochang yi was not translated directly from another language. In terms of its general content, the Dahei tianshen daochang yi contains a mix of Huayan and esoteric Buddhist terminology. Huayan terms such as “ﬂower storehouse” (huazang 華 ), “perfumed seas” (xiangshui hai 香水海), and “Vairo[cana]’s ocean seal samādhi” (Pilu haiyin sanmo 盧海印摩) appear throughout the text. There is less esoteric terminology in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi than in the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi, which repeatedly calls its teachings “esoteric,” mi 密 or mimi 秘密.46 The buddha Vairocana serves as a point of contact between Huayan and the esoteric tradition, and between the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi and Dahei tianshen daochang yi: the former centers on Vairocana as its benzun, while the latter presents the seven forms of Mahākāla as emanations of Vairocana. The Dahei tianshen daochang yi ends the section for each god by instructing the practitioner to perform empowerment (Chn. jiachi 持; Skt. adhi hāna) with the god’s mantra, which could be considered an esoteric ritual. However, it does not prescribe the complete identiﬁcation of the practitioner with the deity that is distinctive to esoteric ritual. According to this deﬁnition of esoteric Buddhism, there are esoteric ritual texts from the Dali kingdom, but they are the three ritual texts that do not mention Mahākāla.47 These texts give man46 The Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi also focuses on Vairocana as the main object of veneration, or benzun 本 and begins by inviting the gods of the three divisions of the garbhadhātu. Each section ends with the instruction to empower the oﬀerings with a mantra, though the mantras themselves are not given. One section, titled “Pinnacle of the Esoteric Lineage” (mizong jiujing 密宗究 ), describes the “octagonal wheel altar” (bajiao zhi luntan 八角之輪壇), also called a “yoga altar,” with the benzun in the center surrounded by the esoteric maṇḍala (mimi zhongwei 秘密中圍). 47 These are the Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui 諸菩薩金剛等啟請儀軌, the Jingang daguanding daochang yi 金剛大灌道場儀, and the Tongyong qiqing yigui 通用啟請儀軌 (for a discussion of their contents, see Hou 2006a). The Tongyong qiqing yigui also contains the Haihui ba ming- Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 21 tras, mudrās, and visualizations of various deities, and prescribe rituals of consecration (Skt. abhi eka; Chn. guanding 灌 ) and empowerment. In one of these texts the ritual master visualizes his body as one with Vajrasattva and makes a vow on behalf of the emperor.48 Dali kingdom rulers’ fondness for the Renwang jing 仁王經 [Scripture for Humane Kings], which promotes esoteric Buddhist kingship, is evident through the surviving copies of the text and local subcommentary from that period, and in the visual references to the text in the Fanxiang juan.49 Esoteric Buddhism was an important part of Dali court Buddhism, but it was not the only form of Buddhism that Dali rulers patronized, nor was it separate from other forms of Buddhism. The combination of esoteric Buddhism with elements from other Buddhist traditions, such as we ﬁnd in the Dali kingdom texts featuring Mahākāla, ﬁts into contemporaneous trends. Songdynasty images from Baodingshan incorporate both esoteric and Huayan content, also using Vairocana as common ground.50 The Liao (915–1125) monk Daozhen 道㲀 (d.u.) wrote a doctrinal syn- wang sizhong huaxian gezan 海會八明王四種現歌讚 [Verses in Praise of the Four Transformations of the Eight Vidyārājas of the Oceanic Assembly] and Zhuan siya fa ge 轉四業法歌 [Verses on the Method of Transforming Four Kinds of Karma]. 48 This appears in the Jingang daguanding daochang yi in the “Sequence on Mindfully Reciting the Invocation of Vajrasattva for the Fire Pot Altar Consecration” (huoweng tan guanding Jingangsaduo qiqing niansong cidi 火甕壇灌金剛薩埵啟請念誦次第). Jingang daguanding daochang yi, DZJP vol. 3: 554–55. 49 For an analysis of the esoteric content of the Renwang jing, see Orzech 1998. Two copies of Amoghavajra’s translation of the Renwang jing were found at Fazang si, along with a late-Nanzhao subcommentary titled Huguo sinan chao 護國司南抄 [Compass for Protecting the Nation Subcommentary], based on Liang Bi’s commentary. Frame 130 in the Fanxiang juan consists of a dhāraṇī pillar written in Sanskrit with the Sinitic title “Nation-Protecting Precious Pillar” (huguo baochuang 護國珤幢), and frames 131–134 depict the “Group of Kings of the Sixteen Great Countries” (shiliu daguo wang zhong 六大圀王眾), which presumably corresponds to the set in this scripture. Renwang jing, T. 246p844a14–18. 50 Copp 2011: 434. 22 Megan Bryson thesis of Huayan and esoteric Buddhism in his Xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji 顯密通心要集 [Collection of Essentials for Becoming a Buddha through the Perfect Penetration of the Exoteric and Esoteric]. Daozhen introduces the separate category of “esoteric teachings” (mijiao 密教) into the Huayan classiﬁcation system, and argues that the esoteric teachings are both superior to and equal to the teachings of the Huayan jing.51 This is signiﬁcant because it shows how Dali kingdom Buddhism belonged to a larger system of Sinitic Buddhism that extended to other regimes that bordered the Song dynasty. Scholars have used the popularity of Tantric Buddhism and gods such as Mahākāla to argue that the bulk of Dali kingdom Buddhism came from Tibet or India.52 The linguistic style, terminology, and general contents of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi challenges this view by showing that Mahākāla was not limited to an esoteric context in the Dali kingdom, and that his ritual texts made use of distinctively Chinese phrases. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom should be examined in relation to Buddhist trends in the Song dynasty and other forms of Sinitic Buddhism on the Song border. Mahākāla’s seven forms In genre, language, and general terminology, the Dahei tianshen daochang yi bears similarities to other Buddhist texts. Its pantheon is less familiar: in addition to the standard form of Mahākāla, we ﬁnd Anle Jialuo 安樂迦羅 (Kāla of Peace and Joy), Riyue Jialuo 日月迦羅 (Kāla of the Sun and Moon), Jinbo Jialuo 金鉢迦羅 (Kāla of the Golden Bowl), Zhongjian tianshen 塚間天神 (God of the Graveyard), Dishi Jialuo 帝釋迦羅 (Indra Kāla), and Baozang Jialuo 寶藏迦羅 (Kāla of the Treasure Store). This set does not appear in texts outside of Dali, and Mahākāla’s consort, identiﬁed here as Baijie Shengfei 姐聖 , “Holy Consort White Sister,” does not correspond clearly to any known deities. Both this set of 51 52 Sharf 2002: 273–75. See Howard et al. 1992: 54–56; Zhao 1983: 149–150; Wang 2001: 42ﬀ. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 23 seven forms of Mahākāla and Baijie Shengfei appear to be part of the regional tradition of Dali Buddhism. A record from the Yuan dynasty, Yang Sen’s 楊森 1326 Qixian shan Bao’en fancha ji 棲賢山報恩梵剎記 [Record of Bao’en Buddhist Monastery on Mount Qixian], mentions “seven transformations of the god Mahākāla” (Mohejialuo qizhuan tianshen 摩訶迦羅七轉天神) among the temple’s paintings.53 Bao’en Monastery was located in Yongchang 永昌, in the far western part of Dali kingdom territory, near the present-day border with Burma. Though Yang’s record does not identify Mahākāla’s seven transformations, it seems likely that they are connected to the set of seven in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi. Other Buddhist texts place Mahākāla with a group of ﬁve male deities. In the Mouli mantuoluo zhoujing 牟梨曼羅咒經 [Murti Maṇḍala Spell Scripture], Mahākāla is grouped with a set of ﬁve brother deities, a group that other texts identify as ﬁve yak as.54 A group of seven sister goddesses, led by the goddess Hārītī, complements the male set. This group of goddesses recalls the set of seven (or eight) “little mothers” (mātkās) of pre-Buddhist and Buddhist India, but I have not seen an equivalent set of seven male gods. Amoghavajra’s Liqu shi 理趣釋 identiﬁes the seven mātkās as Mahākāla’s attendants, which at least provides a textual precedent for Mahākāla and a group of seven deities.55 By the Edo period in Japan, Mahākāla appears in the set of seven wealth gods and has his own set of six forms, but these groups do not match the seven in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi and develop much later.56 The 53 Qixian shan Bao’en fancha ji, p. 266. The text explains that performing its rituals are equivalent to making oﬀerings (gongyang 供養) to the “Mahākāla and Pāñcika, the ﬁve brother gods, and Hārītī and the seven sisters” 摩訶迦羅皤底迦云五弟何唎地七姉妹. T. 1007p668a29–b1. Pāñcika is both the name of Hārītī’s husband and a term that itself could mean “ﬁve gods.” 55 See Dale jingang bukong zhenshi sanmeiye jing bore boluomiduo liqu shi 大樂金剛不空實昧耶經般羅蜜多理趣釋, T. 1003p616a12–13. Other texts, including the Daikoku tenjin h 大神法, pick up on this association as well. 56 For the seven gods of wealth, see Frédéric 1995: 238–39; for the six 54 24 Megan Bryson Japanese sets do, however, represent the same phenomenon we ﬁnd in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi, which is the development of groups of gods in regional traditions. The set of seven forms of Mahākāla in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi does not appear in other Buddhist traditions, but the separate forms have clearer connections to known Buddhist ﬁgures. A central theme of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi is Mahākāla’s identity as an expedient manifestation of Vairocana’s omnipresent dharmakāya. This becomes apparent in the ﬁrst section, which says of Mahākāla, “Outwardly he manifests seven forms of gods, like a mustard seed containing Mt. Sumeru; inwardly he realizes the single truth of Vairo[cana], like suchness encompassing the whole world.”57 The text identiﬁes other individual forms with Vairocana: Kāla of Peace and Joy “shines like the Great Sun” and “inwardly encompasses the compassion and mercy of dharma nature and outwardly manifests the boldness and power of a god;” Kāla of the Golden Bowl is one with the dharma nature in the ten Flower Storehouses, and identical to the purity of Vairocana; and Indra Kāla is a manifestation of the dharma king Vairocana.58 The identiﬁcation of Mahākāla with Vairocana (or Mahāvairocana) appears in Yixing’s 一行 (683–727) commentary to the Mahāvairocanasūtra, where Vairocana takes the form of Mahākāla to subjugate the ﬂesh-eating ḍākinīs.59 Though Yixing reportedly wrote this commentary based on the teachings of ubhakarasiṃha (637–735; Chn. Shanwuwei 善無畏), the commentary is written in Sinitic script, making it possible for this idea to have entered Dali from India or China. The account of Mahākāla defeating the ḍākinīs might have developed in India but entered Dali from Tang China. forms of Mahākāla, see Chaudhuri 2003: 70. 57 In Chinese: 外現神七變芥納須彌內實盧一性含大地. Dahei tianshen daochang yi, p. 373. 58 Dahei tianshen daochang yi, pp. 374–76. 59 Dapiluzhena chengfo jing shu, T. 1796p687b27; Iyanaga 2002: 91. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 25 Beyond his identiﬁcation with Vairocana, the standard form of Mahākāla is a well known ﬁgure, which raises questions about how his depiction in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi compares to depictions of Mahākāla in other forms of Buddhism. In the Dahei tianshen daochang yi, the standard Mahākāla lacks the distinctive functions and titles of the other forms. Unfortunately, the description of this ﬁrst form is incomplete, making it unclear whether it conforms to the iconography of Mahākāla images from the Dali kingdom. All that remain are references to his “tiger eyes, dragon teeth, and knit brows.”60 Dali kingdom images of the standard Mahākāla (as opposed to his other forms) display considerable continuity. The Mahākāla in frame 124 of the Fanxiang juan is representative of Dali kingdom Mahākāla iconography. Though the name Mahākāla means “Great Black One,” he is depicted in white form, possibly a nod to the aforementioned legend in which he (as a manifestation of Vairocana) smears ashes on himself in defeating the ḍākinīs.61 Mahākāla appears in a wrathful form, wearing a ferocious expression and adorned with serpents and skulls. He has four arms: the upper left holds an hourglass drum; the upper right, a trident; the lower left, a lasso; and the lower right, a skull bowl (kapāla). This Mahākāla image closely resembles other images of the god from the Nanzhao-Dali period, which have four or six arms and hold the same implements.62 Art historians have compared these Dali kingdom Mahākāla images to Mahākāla images from India, Tibet, and Tang-Song China to determine the source of their iconography. Lee Yü-min ar60 Dahei tianshen daochang yi, p. 373. Lee cites the Daikoku tenjin h 大神法 for this reference, but it actually comes from the Dapiluzhena chengfo jing shu 大盧遮那經疏, T. 1796p687c1. Lee 1995: 24; Daikoku tenjin h , T. 1287p356b3. 62 The six-armed Mahākālas are a relief carving from Shizhong si Cave 16; a carving from Guiyuan si; and a relief carving from Santai shan. Their two additional attributes are a rosary and a sword. A statue of Mahākāla from the Dali period found in Chongsheng si only has four arms, but the four implements he holds match four of the six implements of the other Mahākāla images. See Lee 1995: 43, ﬁgs. 1, 2, 4; and 44, ﬁg. 5. 61 26 Megan Bryson gues that Dali kingdom Mahākāla images were based on the god’s iconography in Gupta India (fourth-sixth centuries CE) because textual sources from the ﬁfth through seventh centuries describe Mahākāla with a ﬁerce expression, wearing garlands of skulls and a necklace of serpents, and holding a trident.63 I believe that Palaperiod (eighth-twelfth centuries CE) Mahākāla images bear more resemblance to Dali kingdom images: they have four arms that hold a sword, vajra-chopper (kartī), skull staﬀ (kha vāṅga), and skull bowl, and wear similar attire.64 This conforms to the description of the four-armed Mahākāla in the eleventh-century Sādhanamālā, where he holds a vajra-chopper and skull bowl in his principal pair of hands, and the sword and skull staﬀ in the second pair.65 The Sādhanamālā’s description of the six-armed Mahākāla, however, more closely resembles the Dali kingdom images: he holds a vajra-chopper, rosary, and double-headed drum (damaru) in his right hands, and a skull bowl, trident, and lasso in his left hands.66 Images of Mahākāla from Tibet and Tang-Song China display fewer similarities with the Dali kingdom Mahākāla. The IndoTibetan “Lord of the Tent” Mahākāla stands on a corpse, and his two arms hold a vajra-chopper and skull bowl, with a jeweled staﬀ balanced horizontally across them. This form developed by the thirteenth century, around the same time as the Dali kingdom Mahākāla, but there is no indication that these forms of the deity inﬂuenced each other.67 I have found no images of Mahākāla from Tang- or Song-dynasty territory with the exception of Dunhuang, where he appears as a secondary ﬁgure in some paintings of the Thousand-Armed, Thousand-Eyed Avalokite vara. In these images, Mahākāla holds an elephant hide above his head with his top pair of hands, a horizontal spear with his middle pair of hands, and poles or tridents impaling prisoners in the lower pair of hands.68 63 64 65 66 67 68 Lee 1995: 28, 35. Ibid.: 29. Bhattacharyya 1968: 346. Ibid. Lee 1995: 34. See the ninth-century painting in Stein 35.lvi.0019 for a representation Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 27 The Mahākāla in cave 26 at Bezeklik also holds an elephant hide and a horizontal spear, though he rides a bull. This iconography diﬀers markedly from Dali kingdom images of Mahākāla, which never hold an elephant hide or horizontal spear. None of the descriptions of Mahākāla in the Daikoku tenjin h correspond to the god’s Dali kingdom images, either. In one description, Mahākāla has two arms: his right hand makes a ﬁst that rests on his right hip, and his left hand holds a bag the color of rat fur slung over his left shoulder.69 Another description, which conforms to Mahākāla images from Dunhuang, describes the god as blue-black in color, with three heads and six arms. The front pair of hands holds a sword horizontally; the center left hand holds a human head, and the center right hand holds a ewe; and the rear pair of hands stretches an elephant hide over his head and behind his back.70 Iconographic sources suggest that Mahākāla’s Dali kingdom iconography came directly from India or was at least modeled conceptually on Indian iconography. Of course, iconography is not bound to its geographical origin, and these Mahākāla images could have entered Dali through other routes. However, the diﬀerences between Dali kingdom images of Mahākāla and Tang-Song Mahākāla iconography challenge the idea that the Dali kingdom Mahākāla cult is based solely on Chinese materials. Artistic materials can also shed light on two other forms of Mahākāla in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi. Both the Kāla of Peace and Joy and Kāla of the Golden Bowl appear in the Fanxiang juan, in frames 122 and 121, respectively. In the Dahei tianshof this. 69 Daikoku tenjin h , T. 1287p355b23–24. 70 Daikoku tenjin h , T. 1287p355c12–15. This is probably based on the description Huilin gives in the Yiqie jing yinyi 一經音義. He describes Mahākāla with eight arms: the front pair hold a trident horizontally across his body; the second right hand holds a black ram; the second left hand holds a hungry ghost by its hair; the third right hand holds a sword; the third left hand holds a kha vāṅga; and the rear pair of hands stretches a white elephant skin over his head. See T. 2128p366b14–16. 28 Megan Bryson en daochang yi, the Kāla of Peace and Joy is the second form of Mahākāla, and his function is controlling human lifespans. The text describes him as treading on the seven stars of the Big Dipper, which is how the Fanxiang juan depicts him, as well. Though both the Dahei tianshen daochang yi and Fanxiang juan present him with six arms, there is some discrepancy between the implements he holds in each source.71 The inclusion of the Big Dipper and its connection to longevity in his iconography point to Chinese inﬂuence, even if this deity does not appear outside of Dali.72 The Kāla of Peace and Joy goes by diﬀerent names in other sources. The cartouche in the Fanxiang juan identiﬁes him as the “Yak a God of Great Peace” (Da’an yaocha shen 大安神), which is similar to his title “Yak a of Great Peace and Joy” (Da anle yaocha 大安樂 ) in the 1136 ritual text Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui 諸菩薩金剛等啟請儀軌 [Ritual Procedures for the Invitation of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Vajra Beings, etc.] from Fazang si.73 The name “Yak a of Great Peace and Joy” alludes to Mahākāla’s identiﬁcation with yak as, and thus ﬁts into the broader tradition of Mahākāla worship. The Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui gives detailed instructions for the mudrās, mantras, and visualizations of its various deities, which include familiar buddhas and bodhisattvas such as Maitreya, Bhai ajyaguru, and Trailokyavijaya, but also distinctive ﬁgures that appear in the Fanxiang juan, such as the Yak a of Great Peace and Joy and Shefuli fomu 社嚩梨母 (Buddha Mother Shefuli).74 All of this suggests that the Kāla/Yak a of Peace and Joy belongs to the distinctive pantheon of Dali kingdom Buddhism. 71 In the Dahei tianshen daochang yi, Kāla of Joy holds a battle-axe and waisted drum in his upper pair of hands; a spear and lasso in the middle pair; and a sword and skull bowl in the lower pair. In the Fanxiang juan he holds a skull bowl and trident in his upper pair of hands; an axe and drums on a stick in the middle pair; and a rosary and baton in the lower pair. 72 Sørensen 2011a: 230. 73 See Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui, pp. 177–193. The text devotes three separate sections to this god. 74 Shefuli fomu appears in frame 96 of the Fanxiang juan, and in the Zhu fo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui, pp. 98–104. In the latter, her full title is Bolinashefuli fomu 栗那社嚩梨母. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 29 The same is true of the Kāla of the Golden Bowl, the fourth form of Mahākāla in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi and frame 121 in the Fanxiang juan. According to the text, he prevents disasters and commutes prison sentences with his three heads and six arms. In this case, the textual description of the Kāla of the Golden Bowl and his image in the Fanxiang juan are identical: his upper pair of hands holds a bell and vajra; his middle pair of hands holds a conch shell; and his lower pair of hands holds a bow and arrow. Each source depicts him as standing on a dragon.75 Though neither the Kāla of Peace and Joy nor the Kāla of the Golden Bowl appear outside the Dali kingdom, the consistency among their descriptions in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi and other sources from this era shows that they were part of an established pantheon in Dali kingdom Buddhism. Even if not all of the forms of Mahākāla have clear models in other Buddhist traditions, certain aspects of their functions or iconography provide clues to their background. Kāla of Peace and Joy and the third form of Mahākāla, Kāla of the Sun and Moon, have a connection to Chinese astral deities. Kāla of Peace and Joy treads on an image of the Big Dipper, and the Dahei tianshen daochang yi describes him as controlling human lifespans. Chinese astrologists speciﬁcally connected the Big Dipper to longevity, and identiﬁed each of its seven (or nine) stars as a deity governing the lifespans of those born at a particular time. Starting in the Tang dynasty, there are records of Buddhists adopting these astral cults, as well. Yixing and Vajrabodhi (Chn. Jingangzhi 金剛智, 669–741) each wrote on esoteric homa rituals in honor of the Big Dipper, with Yixing drawing on Daoist astrological beliefs in his writings.76 Kāla of Peace and Joy’s astral symbolism probably comes from this Tang esoteric background. As the name “Kāla of the Sun and Moon” indicates, Mahākāla’s third form possesses solar and lunar symbolism in the form of two disks he holds. A crow occupies the solar disk, while a rabbit in- 75 76 Dahei tianshen daochang yi, p. 375. Mollier 2008: 134–146. 30 Megan Bryson habits the lunar disk; both come from Chinese legends. The text does not explain the connection between this symbolism and Kāla of the Sun and Moon’s function of vanquishing thieves – perhaps he illuminates acts that take place in darkness? However, the iconography of holding a solar and a lunar disk with a crow and rabbit in them, respectively, is fairly common among Buddhist deities in China. The Buddhist goddess Mārīcī, herself an astral deity, holds a solar and lunar disk in one pair of arms, as does the form of Avalokite vara with one-thousand eyes and one-thousand arms. Another Hindu-Buddhist deity who wields solar and lunar disks is the god Mahe vara, an incarnation of iva that appears in frame 128 of the Fanxiang juan. Kāla of the Sun and Moon does not match Mahe vara’s appearance (Mahe vara rides a bull, in the manner of iva), but there is a connection between Mahe vara, Mahākāla, and the Kāla of the Sun and Moon. Both Mahe vara and Mahākāla are manifestations of iva, and Liang Bi’s commentary on the Renwang jing (known to Dali kingdom Buddhists) identiﬁes Mahākāla as an incarnation of Mahe vara.77 Contemporary images of Mahākāla in the Dali region depict the god as holding solar and lunar disks in his right and left hands, which shows that this connection to Mahe vara’s iconography strengthened as the centuries passed. Kāla of the Sun and Moon appears to be a form of Mahākāla that displays continuity with both the Chinese concepts of the crow in the sun and rabbit in the moon, and with the iconography of Mahe vara. The second through fourth forms of Mahākāla in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi bear similarities to other deities, and in some cases appear elsewhere in Dali kingdom Buddhism, but do not correspond clearly to known gods. For the ﬁfth through seventh forms of Mahākāla, there are scriptural bases that provide further insight into the gods’ backgrounds. 77 Renwang huguo bore boluomiduo jing shu, T. 1709p490a29–b2. Liang Bi cites the Mahāmāyūrīvidyā (Kongque jing 孔雀經) as the source of this information, but I have found no references to Mahākāla in the Chinese translation (T. 982). The Daikoku tenjin h also cites the Kongque wang jing, but its author might just be following Liang Bi’s commentary, as he cites this commentary elsewhere. See T. 1287p356a1–4. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 31 Mahākāla’s ﬁfth form, the God of the Graveyard, judges good and evil; as his name indicates, he also governs death and directs the spirits of the deceased in the afterlife. Amoghavajra’s translation of the Renwang jing provides the scriptural basis for this identiﬁcation: he uses the name “the Great Black God, Mahākāla of the Graveyard” (Zhongjian Mohejialuo Dahei tianshen 塚間摩訶迦羅大神), which does not appear in the earlier translation, nor anywhere else.78 We know the Dali kings were familiar with Amoghavajra’s translation of the Renwang jing and Liangbi’s commentary on it from the manuscripts of these texts also found at Fazang si. Though the Graveyard form of Mahākāla alludes to cemetery practices that are central in Indian Tantric Buddhism, the speciﬁc name appears to come from a Sinitic source. The sixth form, that of Indra Kāla, is clearly based on the god Indra, king of the Vedic pantheon, whom Buddhists incorporated into their pantheon as a guardian of the dharma and head of the Trayastriṃ a Heaven. The Dahei tianshen daochang yi describes him in royal terms and refers to his war against the asuras. Though Mahākāla and Indra have a weaker connection than Mahākāla has with distinctly aiva gods, they often appear together in Buddhist texts among groups of deva guardians of the dharma.79 Unlike the forms of Mahākāla and other wrathful dharma guardians that appear at the end of the Fanxiang juan, Indra and Brahmā show up as a pair toward the beginning of the painting, in frames 19–22. Indra Kāla’s description in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi also departs from the other, more ferocious forms of Mahākāla: he has 78 Renwang jing, T. 246p840b5–7. Kumārajīva’s translation identiﬁes the deity in question as the “god of the family,” jia shen 家神. Renwang bore boluomi jing T. 245p830a26. Iyanaga posits that Amoghavajra identiﬁed the deity as Mahākāla because the complete story (contained in the Xianyu jing 賢愚經) had connections to the legend of Hārītī (eating human ﬂesh, stealing children) and ḍākinīs (Iyanaga 2002: 147). 79 See Foshuo sheng Duoluo pusa jing, T. 1104p472a13–14; Foshuo suiq Ziu ji de dazizai tuoluoni shenzhou jing, T. 1154p637c7–10; Foshuo zuisheng miao jixiang genben zhi zuishang mimi yiqie mingyi sanmodi fen, T. 1187p813c4–6; Wenshu suoshuo zuisheng mingyi jing, T. 1188p819b12–14. These groups, which are described as protecting the practitioner at all times, often also include Brahmā, Nārāyaṇa, Mahe vara, and Hārītī. 32 Megan Bryson two arms and a reﬁned, royal appearance beﬁtting his kingly status. Indra comes from pre-Buddhist India, but was a common ﬁgure in Chinese Buddhism, as well, which makes it possible for him to have entered Dali through either route. Mahākāla’s ﬁnal form in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi is “Kāla of the Treasure Storehouse,” who puts an end to war, pestilence, and misery. Kāla of the Treasure Storehouse can be identiﬁed as the “God of the Treasure Storehouse” (Baozang shen 寶藏神), the Chinese name for the Indian wealth god Jambhala. In India, Mahākāla’s functions overlapped with those of Jambhala, leading to their identiﬁcation with each other.80 Dharmadeva (Chn. Fatian 法天) translated two ritual texts for the God of the Treasure Storehouse in the late tenth century, and another ritual text includes in its title the name “Treasure Store Deva” as an epithet of Vai ravaṇa.81 Dali kingdom Buddhists could have looked to Sinitic sources for this form of Mahākāla, despite Jambhala’s Indian origins. The connection between Mahākāla and the God of the Treasure Storehouse continued in later Dali history: the two gods appear together in a 1421 record from the Dong family temple. This record reports that the rear hall of the newly renovated Fazang si displayed images of the “ﬁve statues of Sandabai 大 Vajra, Yamāntaka, Ucchu ma, Mahākāla, and the God of the Treasure Storehouse.”82 80 For example, the money bag that Mahākāla carries in Japan probably derived from images of the wealth gods Kubera and Jambhala (Iyanaga 2002: 393). Strickmann, in Mantras et Mandarins, refers to Jambhala and Mahākāla as the god of wealth (Strickmann 1996: 289). 81 These are the Foshuo Baozang shen daming mannaluo yigui jing 說寶藏神大明曼拏羅儀軌經 (T. 1283); the Foshuo sheng Baozang shen yigui jing 說聖寶藏神儀軌經 (T. 1284); and the Beifang Pishamen Duowen Baozang Tianwang shenmiao tuoluoni biexing yigui 方沙門多聞寶藏天王神妙羅尼別行儀軌 (T. 1250), translated by Amoghavajra. 82 In Chinese: Sandabai jingang, Yemantuojia, Dali fennu, Mohejialuo, Baozang shen deng wuqu 大金剛夜曼多迦大力忿怒摩訶迦羅寶神等五軀. Zhaozhou Nanshan Dafazang si bei 趙南山大法寺碑, p. 32. While Yamantaka, Ucchu ma, Mahākāla, and the God of the Treasure Storehouse come from India and appear in esoteric Buddhism, I am unsure of the identity of the “Three Great White Vajras.” This might refer to the Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 33 Mahākāla’s seven forms display several common characteristics: they are all described as manifestations of the buddha Vairocana; with the exception of Indra Kāla, they have multiple sets of arms and appear wrathful; many have roots in Indian religion and were incorporated into Buddhism as guardians of the dharma; and many are included in other works of Dali Buddhism. Their Indian backgrounds might obscure the fact that several of them are mentioned in Sinitic Buddhist works, and could have entered the Dali kingdom through Song China. For Kāla of the Graveyard, this possibility is especially strong because Amoghavajra’s translation of the Renwang jing was popular among Dali kingdom rulers. Even if some of Mahākāla’s forms came from China, there is no indication that they entered Dali as a set. Instead, it seems most likely that the seven forms of Mahākāla came together in the Dali kingdom. This set combines forms of Mahākāla that probably entered Dali from Tang-Song China and forms of the god that have not been found elsewhere. The inclusion of the latter in other works of Dali Buddhism suggests that they are members of the distinctive Dali kingdom pantheon. Attendants and companions Mahākāla does not appear by himself in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi or other works of Dali kingdom Buddhism. His companions in texts and images can also reveal where the Dali Mahākāla came from, and how Dali kingdom Buddhists worshiped him. In the Dahei tianshen daochang yi, Fanxiang juan, and food-distribution texts of Dali kingdom Buddhism, Mahākāla is paired with a goddess known as Holy Consort White Sister (Baijie shengfei 姐聖 ) or Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune (Fude longnü 福德龍女). Other images from the Dali kingdom portray Mahākāla alongside the god Vai ravaṇa. Understanding Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom requires an understanding of his consort and his double. “Great White Vajra” that appears in the Dali kingdom text Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui, and which may be a regional deity distinctive to the Dali Buddhist pantheon. Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui, pp. 213ﬀ. 34 Megan Bryson After giving the rituals for Mahākāla’s seven forms, the Dahei tianshen daochang yi turns to his “Holy Consort.” Despite her consort title, the text does not prescribe any rituals based on the union of Mahākāla with her. This distinguishes the textual tradition of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi from Tantric Mahākāla rituals from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.83 It is still possible that Dali kingdom Buddhists used sexual symbolism or sexual practices in their rituals, but neither the Dahei tianshen daochang yi nor the other ritual texts that mention Mahākāla and his consort reﬂect that. The Dahei tianshen daochang yi identiﬁes the Holy Consort White Sister with multiple ﬁgures: the eight-year old nāgī from the Lotus sūtra who attains buddhahood; a female incarnation of Maitreya; the goddess rī Lak mī; and the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e (as Changheng).84 There is no clear thread connecting these ﬁgures, aside from their femininity. Furthermore, despite her apparently generic name, Holy Consort White Sister does not appear outside the Dali region. This suggests that she, too, is a distinctive part of Dali Buddhism. The Dahei tianshen daochang yi’s description of the Holy Consort supports this idea. According to the text, three dragons crown her head, and she has two arms. Her left hand rests on her heart, while her right hand rubs a youth’s head.85 This description perfectly matches the illustration in frame 123 of the Fanxiang juan, which is paired with the main form of Mahākāla in frame 83 In Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, Mahākāla is depicted in sexual union with his consort. See Stablein 1976: 34. This is also apparent in Sinitic translations of Tibetan ritual texts centered on Mahākāla. Sinitic manuscripts of Mahākāla rituals from the Western Xia empire (1038–1227) found in Khara-Khoto (Chn. Heishuicheng 黑水城) include the Dahei genben ming zhou 大黑根本命咒 (TK262); Ciwu Dahei yaomen 慈烏大黑要門 (A7); and the Dahei qiuxiu bing zuofa 大黑求修並法 (B59). Here the main deity is called Jixiang Dahei 吉祥大黑 ( rī Mahākāla), Jixiangxing Luge 吉祥形魯葛 ( rī-form [He]ruka), and Mohegela 摩訶葛辢, a Chinese transliteration of the Tibetan/Mongolian form of the name Mahākāla; the goddesses that appear in these texts are ḍākinīs and Vajravārāhī. 84 Dahei tianshen daochang yi, p. 378. 85 Ibid. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 35 124. Frame 123 features an elegant lady with a gold crown and Chinese-style robes; only the three snakes rising over her head and serpent coils beneath her feat reveal her true ophidian nature. A cartouche identiﬁes her not as Holy Consort White Sister, but Great Holy Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune (Dasheng Fude longnü 大聖福德龍女). The name “Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune” does not appear outside the Dali region, either, making it di cult to identify this ﬁgure with known deities. One possible connection that would also tie her to Holy Consort White Sister is the goddess rī: the Dunhuang text Pishamen yuanqi 沙門緣起 [Vai ravaṇa’s Origins] calls rī “Woman of Good Fortune” (Fude nü 福德女), and the Dahei tianshen daochang yi gives the Siddham characters Mahā riye and Sinitic characters for “Auspicious” (jixiang 祥) as titles of Holy Consort White Sister.86 rī would also connect Mahākāla to Vai ravaṇa, as she usually takes the role of the latter’s consort. I will return to this issue below. Though this connection to rī is intriguing, it does not reveal much about the iconography of Holy Consort White Sister/Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune. rī usually appears holding a lotus and/ or jewels, not as a nāgī. In the Fanxiang juan, the Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune wears Chinese-style robes, and the overall style of the Fanxiang juan draws on Chinese models. However, the serpent crown that denotes this goddess’s nāgī identity is common in Indian and Southeast Asian art, but not in China.87 Like Mahākāla, Holy Consort White Sister/Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune has an Indian appearance, but this does not necessarily make her an Indian goddess. 86 I am grateful to Hou Chong for alerting me to the existence of the Pishamen yuanqi. For the full text, see Li Xiaorong 2003: 154–55. 87 The Fanxiang juan includes two kinds of nāga iconography: the nāga kings in frames 13–14 have serpent crowns and coils like Fude Longnü, but those in frames 15–18 resemble Chinese dragon kings (longwang 龍王) in that they appear with dragons but are not themselves theriomorphic (Li Lints’an 1967: 82–83). The Indian style of nāga iconography appears in earlier paintings from Dunhuang, but faded away by the second half of the tenth century (Whitﬁeld 1982: 314). 36 Megan Bryson I suspect that the Holy Consort White Sister/Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune is another distinctive member of the Dali kingdom Buddhist pantheon. In addition to the Dahei tianshen daochang yi and Fanxiang juan, the two food-distribution ritual texts from the Dali kingdom pair Mahākāla with this consort. The Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi and Wuzhe dengshi fahui yi each include Mahākāla and his consort in lists of gods of the ten directions invited to the ritual area to partake in the oﬀerings. The diﬀerence is that the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi identiﬁes the consort as Holy Consort White Sister, while the Wuzhe dengshi fahui yi identiﬁes her as the Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune.88 This reinforces the mutual identiﬁcation of the Holy Consort White Sister and Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune, and provides additional support for her pairing with Mahākāla in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi and Fanxiang juan. The two food distribution ritual texts depart from the Dahei tianshen daochang yi and Fanxiang juan in further grouping Mahākāla and his consort with the goddess Hārītī, an Indian yak inī who renounced her child-eating ways when the Buddha converted her. In the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi Holy Consort White Sister is included in the same line with the goddess Hārītī, making it unclear whether they are the same ﬁgure or separate. Hārītī shows up again as the Mother of Demons (Guizimu 鬼子母) alongside Mahākāla and the Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune in the Wuzhe dengshi fahui yi. Her grouping with Mahākāla is unsurprising, as the two deities often appeared together in Buddhist texts and monasteries, where they guarded the kitchen.89 However, she does not seem to function as Mahākāla’s consort in the Dali kingdom, as she appears in a separate frame in the Fanxiang juan and does not share the serpent symbolism of the Holy Consort/Dragon Maiden. 88 Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi, p. 366; Wuzhe dengshi fahui yi, pp. 3, 20–21. 89 Yijing notes in his Nanhai jiguinei fazhuan that both Mahākāla and Hārītī are guardians of kitchens; see T. 2125p209b14–24. Rituals involving both Mahākāla and Hārītī can be found in the Bukong Juansuo shenbian zhenyan jing (T. 1092p261c24–28) and Mouli mantuoluo zhoujing (T. 1007p668a29–b2). Iyanaga discusses the connection between Mahākāla and Hārītī (Iyanaga 2002: 104, 155–56). Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 37 I hypothesize that Mahākāla’s consort in Dali kingdom Buddhism is a local dragon goddess that became identiﬁed with various Buddhist ﬁgures. The 899 Nanzhao tuzhuan 南詔圖傳 [Illustrated History of Nanzhao] credits Acuoye Guanyin with “initiating the ritual procedures of the dragon maiden,” qi longnü zhi guiyi 啟龍女之軌儀, but does not explain what this entails.90 This does, however, show that there were religious practices surrounding dragon goddesses before the Dali kingdom was founded. It is most likely that Dali kingdom Buddhists identiﬁed their local dragon goddess with the goddess rī. The same process occurred in Indonesia, where rī devī turned into “Dewi rī,” a goddess of rice cultivation that could turn herself into a snake; and in Japan, where the Tenkawa form of Benzaiten 辯才 (Skt. Sarasvatī) has three serpent heads.91 The connection between Mahākāla and rī is more di cult to establish, but rī has a clear connection to another ﬁgure that frequently appears alongside Mahākāla in Dali kingdom Buddhism: the god of the north, Vai ravaṇa.92 Vai ravaṇa appears once – as the Great God of the Treasure Storehouse of the Northern Direction (Beifang baozang dashen 方寶大神) – among the gods of the ten directions who attend Mahākāla in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi, but otherwise does not play a role in the Dali kingdom texts that mention Mahākāla. The Fanxiang juan includes him in frame 117, in its section of dharma guardians, so he is generally grouped with Mahākāla, but it is in other examples of Dali king- 90 Chapin 1970: ﬁg. 15, line 7. For Dewi rī, see Jordaan 1997: 296–97. For Tenkawa Benzaiten, see Faure 2003: 95, and Keiranshūy shū, T. 2410p622b11–16. 92 rī does appear as Mahākāla’s “brilliant consort” (mingfei 明 ) in Tibetan Buddhism, but the iconographies of these gods in Tibet are diﬀerent from their forms in Dali (Lee 1995: 35). For example, the Zaoxiang liangdu jing 造像量度經, a mid-Qing translation of a Tibetan version of the Pratimālak aṇa done by the Mongolian specialist Gonpokyab, divides the guardian deities into male and female groups (zong 宗): Mahākāla is the leader of the male group, and rī (here called Funü 褔女, “Woman of Merit,” and Gongde Tiannü 德女) is the leader of the female group. See T. 1419p948b2–3; Berger 2003: 84. 91 38 Megan Bryson dom art that the Vai ravaṇa-Mahākāla connection emerges. Four examples of Buddhist art from the Nanzhao or Dali kingdoms depict Mahākāla alongside Vai ravaṇa. At Santai shan in central Yunnan the two gods appear next to each other as relief carvings on the mountainside. Both Mahākāla statues from caves 6 and 16 of Shibao shan are also paired with Vai ravaṇa, and a stone slab found at Guiyuan si 歸源寺 in Xizhou features Mahākāla on one side and Vai ravaṇa on the other. In cave 6 at Shibao shan, the two gods ﬂank a set of eight vidyārājas (“brilliant kings;” Chn. mingwang 明王), with the buddha Vairocana in the center.93 In each case, Vai ravaṇa appears in martial form: he wears a suit of armor, and holds a trident in one hand and a miniature pagoda (or nothing at all) in the other. Stein and Iyanaga have drawn attention to the overlapping of Mahākāla and Vai ravaṇa’s functions in India: both appeared as martial ﬁgures, but were also associated with wealth and identiﬁed with the gods Kubera and Jambhala. Some Buddhist texts include them in a group of originally non-Buddhist guardian deities that protect practitioners; other members are Brahmā, Indra, Rudra, Nārāyaṇa, Skanda, Mahe vara, Nandī vara, Yama, and Hārītī.94 Mahākāla and Vai ravaṇa themselves did not appear as a divine pair in Indian Buddhist art, but they are grouped together in Khotanese “miraculous image illustrations” at Dunhuang, where they serve as two of the eight guardian deities of the kingdom.95 The Japanese Sanmen Daikoku 面大 [Three-Headed Mahākāla] also joins them together: it has Mahākāla’s head in the center, and the heads of Vai ravaṇa and the goddess Sarasvatī on either side.96 Some scholars identify the central buddha as ākyamuni, but Luo Zhao and Hou Chong have argued that it is more likely Vairocana (Luo 2003: 365). One of Luo’s arguments is that the cave 6 Vairocana matches the image of Vairocana in frame 84 of the Fanxiang juan. 94 See the Foshuo Wenshu pusa zuisheng zhenshi mingyi jing, T. 1189p825a10; Pubian guangming qingjing chisheng ruyi baoyin xin wunengsheng damingwang dasuiqiu tuoluoni jing T. 1153p624b18. 95 Zhang 2005: 50. 96 Matsushita 2001: 38. 93 Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 39 What do Mahākāla’s groupings with his consort and Vai ravaṇa show about Buddhism in the Dali kingdom? Rolf Stein has remarked on the persistence of these mythological bonds across time and space; he attributes them to a “kind of internal ‘logic’ of forms that are bound to certain functions and structures.”97 Iyanaga Nobumi’s study of Mahākāla from India to Japan draws on Stein’s approach in pointing out how themes from Mahākāla’s Indian origins carry over into Japan, albeit having gone through multiple transformations. While this ‘mytho-logic’ is not the only explanation for continued connections between deities – there are textual, ritual, and iconographic traditions that also sustain them – it cannot be ignored. Deities arise as part of networks and have a repertoire of functions, iconographies, and related legends associated with them. Mahākāla’s connections to the Holy Consort/Dragon Maiden, Hārītī, and Vai ravaṇa in Dali kingdom Buddhism locate him within a broader mythological tradition around the themes of martial nation-protecting, wealth, abundance of food, and fecundity. Mahākāla’s consort both becomes and replaces Hārītī as Mahākāla’s partner, who both complements and reproduces his own functions.98 Mahākāla and Vai ravaṇa are doubles in the sense of having the same functions of governing wealth and warfare. Whereas Vai ravaṇa was a prototype for monastery guardians in the Chinese interior, in Dali it was Mahākāla who became known metonymically as Qielan in his role as protector of the monastery.99 Vai ravaṇa also appears in Dali Buddhism, but he is overshadowed by Mahākāla. These examples illustrate how Dali kingdom Buddhists drew from a pre-existing repertoire of ﬁgures and functions in their Mahākāla worship, creating new combinations with familiar themes. 97 Stein 1993: 120. As a sign of the conﬂation of Mahākāla’s consort and Hārītī, at present there are several temples in the Dali region that combine the names Holy Consort White Sister and Hārītī to refer to a single goddess, though almost no one is aware of their Buddhist background. 99 See Hansen 1993: 76. 98 40 Megan Bryson In addition to Mahākāla’s primary partners, the end of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi lists the twenty-eight gods that serve as his attendants, as well as the gods of the ten directions. The former group is described as surrounding the central deity (zhuzun 主 ) Mahākāla in the maṇḍala. Many of these gods are associated with the four cardinal directions, such as the Great Generals of the East, South, West, and North, which is unsurprising in a mandalic conﬁguration. The number twenty-eight suggests a connection to the gods of the twenty-eight lunar lodges, but the twenty-eight gods in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi have no clear astral symbolism. Most of the male deities have a wrathful appearance, and the “Great Fire-Starting King” is described as having a horse head atop his crown, suggesting a possible connection to Hayagrīva. Animal-headed demon kings (guiwang 鬼王) and strongmen (lishi 力士) populate about half the list. One of the most intriguing ﬁgure in this list is the Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune, who is described as “yellowish-white in color and appears as a bodhisattva.”100 Why would the Dahei tianshen daochang yi include both a section devoted to the Holy Consort White Sister and a reference to the Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune if these are the same ﬁgure? Hou Chong has hypothesized that Mahākāla’s consort is known as Holy Consort White Sister when she is a major ﬁgure, and Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune when she appears as a minor ﬁgure, but this does not account for the Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi or Fanxiang juan.101 I think it is more likely that Holy Consort White Sister and Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune were two names for the same deity, and the appearance of the Dragon Maiden of Good Fortune in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi represents an attempt to incorporate the Holy Consort’s other title into the ritual text. Baozang also appears in both the main section of the text and in the group of gods from the ten directions, showing another example of a god serving a primary and secondary role within the same text. 100 101 Dahei tianshen daochang yi, p. 379. Hou 2006a: 52. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 41 The ﬁnal section in the Dahei tianshen yi is devoted to the gods of the ten directions, which are more familiar ﬁgures. Eight of the gods correspond to one of the eight directions, while Brahmā governs the upper direction and the earth goddess Pthivī is in charge of the lower direction. These deities come from Indian Buddhism, and include gods with clear ties to Mahākāla, such as the Great God of the Treasure Storehouse of the North, i.e. Vai ravaṇa. Indra (as Kau ika) and Mahe vara also appear as the gods of the East and Northeast, respectively.102 Together, these gods guard the ten directions, ensuring family happiness, agricultural abundance, and peace throughout the nation. The various deities the Dahei tianshen daochang yi connects to Mahākāla help ﬁll in the picture of Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom. Mahākāla’s Dali kingdom cult reproduces Mahākāla’s links to deities in Indian Buddhism, but these links also carried over into the Sinitic scriptures of Tang-Song Buddhism. It is Mahākāla’s consort that highlights the distinctive regional elements of his worship in the Dali kingdom. While deities like Hārītī and Vai ravaṇa appear throughout the Buddhist world, the Holy Consort/Dragon Maiden paired with Mahākāla is a local ﬁgure. This suggests that the rulers of the Dali kingdom did not simply adopt Mahākāla worship wholesale from a neighboring region or regions, but adapted the Mahākāla cult to their own religious context. Conclusions: Mahākāla and the Dahei tianshen daochang yi in Dali kingdom Buddhism The Dahei tianshen daochang yi depicts Mahākāla as the wrathful manifestation of Vairocana and places him within an esoteric-Huayan context. Though the ritual techniques of empowerment, mantras, and visualization in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi could be considered esoteric, more of the text’s terminology draws on Huayan themes. References to the Flower Storehouse realm created 102 Rounding out the list are the ﬁre god in the Southeast, Yama in the South, a Rāk asī in the Southwest, the Nāga King Varuṇa in the West, and the wind god in the Northwest. Dahei tianshen daochang yi, p. 380. 42 Megan Bryson by Vairocana, the Hall of Universal Light where the Buddha preaches the Huayan jing, the three Huayan worthies of Samantabhadra, ākyamuni, and Mañju rī, and the samādhi of Vairocana’s Ocean Seal show this Huayan orientation. The lack of strong esoteric content in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi is somewhat surprising, considering Mahākāla’s Tantric cult in India and Tibet. This supports the theory that Dali elites did not adopt the bulk of their Mahākāla worship from these neighboring regimes. Indeed, the language of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi reveals Dali elites’ Sinocentrism: in addition to adopting Sinitic script, they adopted the Chinese classical tradition. However, Hou Chong overstates his case in arguing that the Dahei tianshen daochang yi must have been written in Chinese territory. There is much in the Dali cult of Mahākāla that does not appear in Tang-Song sources. Japan oﬀers the best comparison for understanding what is distinctive about the Dali kingdom cult of Mahākāla. Despite some scholars’ assumptions that the Japanese Mahākāla cult came from Mongolian/Tibetan Buddhism after the Mongol conquest of China, it now appears that Mahākāla’s cult in Japan drew on Sinitic sources.103 The best example of this is Jingai’s 神愷 Daikoku tenjin h , but one of the texts that Jingai used was another Japanese creation that included a ritual for Mahākāla. The Shingon monk Shunnyū 淳祐 (890–953) composed the Y son d j kan 要道場觀 [Bodhimaṇḍa Visualizations of Important Gods], which describes Mahākāla as holding a bag the color of rat fur and quotes the Nanhai jiguinei fazhuan.104 In Japan Mahākāla continued to transform, becoming one of the seven wealth gods and also being associated with his own set of six forms, but the primary sources of his cult come from China. Buddhists in the Dali kingdom adopted much of their Mahākāla cult from Tang-Song China, as shown by the references to Sinitic scriptures in the Dahei tianshen daochang yi. At the same time, 103 104 Frédéric 1995: 237; Mikky daijiten, p. 1453c. T. 2468p63b16–17. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 43 Mahākāla’s iconography in the Dali kingdom suggests non-Chinese origins. The rulers of the Dali kingdom combined non-Chinese images with Sinitic scriptures, and placed Mahākāla within their distinctive regional form of Buddhism. The question that remains is, “Why Mahākāla?” If Dali kingdom rulers looked to Song China for their Buddhist tradition, how did Mahākāla become such a prominent deity in their pantheon? Again, Japan provides a similar case, in which elements of Tang-dynasty esoteric Buddhism that died out in China survived in Shingon Buddhism. Along with Mahākāla, the goddess Hārītī received more attention in Japan than in China. It is possible that Mahākāla enjoyed a larger following in the Tang-Song period than sources indicate. However, while Hārītī at least appeared in the Buddhist grottoes in neighboring Sichuan, no Mahākāla statues have been found there. I hypothesize that Mahākāla’s relative obscurity in Tang-Song Buddhism contributed to his popularity in the Dali kingdom. The example of the other tutelary deity of Dali Buddhism, Acuoye Guanyin, supports this claim. Guanyin is a ubiquitous ﬁgure throughout the Buddhist world, but the Acuoye form appears to be unique to Dali. The Nanzhao tuzhuan and Fanxiang juan credit Acuoye Guanyin with introducing Buddhism to Dali from India in the guise of an Indian monk; several additional images from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms attest to Acuoye Guanyin’s importance. As with Mahākāla, there is a disparity between Acuoye Guanyin’s appearance and the rest of Dali Buddhism: Acuoye Guanyin’s iconography comes from South or Southeast Asia, and the Nanzhao tuzhuan identiﬁes him as Indian, but the Nanzhao tuzhuan is written in Sinitic script and also states that Acuoye Guanyin “follows the way of the Five Constants” (zunxing wuchang zhi dao 遵行五常之道), the ﬁve cardinal virtues of Confucianism. The examples of Mahākāla and Acuoye Guanyin show that Dali rulers favored Indian images even though most of their Buddhist texts came from Tang-Song China. Except for the Nanzhao tuzhuan, no texts related to Acuoye Guanyin have survived, which makes the Dahei tianshen daochang yi (and other ritual texts that 44 Megan Bryson mention Mahākāla) important for understanding the textual traditions surrounding these distinctive deities. The fact that the Dahei tianshen daochang yi points to Chinese sources and regional innovations makes Mahākāla’s Indian image more signiﬁcant. By emphasizing the Indian origins of their Buddhist tradition, Dali elites claimed to possess a more ‘authentic’ form of Buddhism than Song China. This is not an unusual strategy – claims of direct Indian transmissions appear throughout Buddhist Asia – but it would have been more plausible for Dali elites because of their proximity to South Asia. The Dali kingdom Mahākāla thus embodies an important characteristic of Dali kingdom Buddhism: it combines Indian images and Chinese texts, while also adding distinctive regional traditions. A translation of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi105 […] Unicorn horn106 sings […] Thus-Come One’s meeting he expounds on the teaching of the sheep cart;107 their fruits go beyond all outﬂows, their discernment shows that all is emptiness. They and others both beneﬁt from swallowing the nine-cycle cinnabar of the sun and moon;108 their might and virtue are illuminated from inhaling the ﬁve brilliant disciplines of the mist and clouds.109 They 105 Hou Chong’s edited and annotated version of this text appears in volume six of Zangwai fojiao wenxian (ZFW), and he added, omitted, and changed several characters to maintain parallelism or to correct errors. I primarily follow the manuscript of the text that is reproduced in volume one of Dali congshu: dazangjing pian (DZJP), except when the text has been cut oﬀ or is illegible, or when Hou’s alteration is the only way to make sense of the line. 106 Symbol of the solitary pratyekabuddha. 107 Symbol of the rāvaka path. 108 I follow Hou in reading ju 俱, “both,” for ju , “possess.” ZFW: 373. This line is left out of the manuscript reproduction in DZJP. Dancheng means “sincerity,” but here it also refers to cinnabar that has undergone nine transmutations to become puriﬁed, like the nine transformations of the embryo and the nine inner phases of the One. See Schipper 1993: 177–78. This system comes from the Baopuzi. 109 “Five disciplines” translates wuming xuelun 五明學論, the ﬁve ﬁelds of learning (vidyāsthāna) in ancient India: inner science (Skt. adhyātmavidyā; Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 45 plant good roots as the various divisions praise the supreme leader; they receive the Buddha’s instruction as the four assemblies circle the World-Honored One. The lock of hair illuminates their faces, and their ears hear the speech of the golden mouth. The fruits of solitary-awakening pratyekabuddhas precede the [bodhisattva] path; the tops of their heads burst into ﬂames and their bodies burn.110 Appearing in a world without a Buddha, following the cycle of birth and death; they delight in being in mountains and forests, unbiased and impartial. They suddenly transcend all outﬂows at the arhat stage; they already awaken to the single cultivation in the voice-hearer heaven. They diligently progress in the two vehicles, middle and small; contemplating ﬂowers, the ‘ﬂying staﬀs’ delight in the gold ﬁeld.111 Perform empowerment with the mantra of pratyekabuddhas and arhats. The ritual in praise of the god Great Black will be performed. […] body actually a buddha, Great Black establishes his name in the Great Void; boldly and powerfully acting as a god, Kāla takes form based on True Suchness. Outwardly he manifests seven forms of gods, like a mustard seed containing Mt. Sumeru; inwardly he realizes the single truth of Vairo[cana], like suchness encompassing the whole world. His appearance is wrathful as he sweeps away heterodox gods and demons; his heart is compassionate as he points the way to the Lotus Realm. Sagest of the sages, he is Chn. neiming 內明), the science of reasons (Skt. hetuvidyā; Chn. yinming 因明), science of words (Skt. abdavidyā; Chn. shengming 聲明), science of medicine (Skt. cikitsāvidyā; Chn. yiming 醫明), and science of arts and crafts (Skt. ilpakarmasthānavidyā; Chn. gongqiaoming 明). 110 Pratyekabuddhas are associated with ﬁre, and with self-immolation speciﬁcally. Liz Wilson reports on the episode in the Mahāvastu in which 500 pratyekabuddhas self-immolated upon the conception of ākyamuni because they had been rendered obsolete. Wilson 2003: 40–41. 111 “Flying staﬀs” (fei xi 飛錫) are the symbol of traveling monks. The “gold ﬁeld” (jintian 金田) refers to the Buddhist monastery. 46 Megan Bryson none other than the supreme worthy of the ten directions and three worlds; most divine of the divinities, he is in fact the proper ruler of the […] beings. One body with seven manifestations, seven forms with one essence. Tiger eyes and dragon teeth, knit brows […] his virtue is to mightily uproot evil […] the god sweeps away disasters and dust […] bravery. By seeing and hearing one begins to ascend to sublime awakening; by knowing and understanding one is able to realize true suchness. Supremely magniﬁcent Kāla the god Great Black, in his seven forms he is ﬁrst among sage rulers. Inwardly he is one with the buddha nature of benevolence, compassion, and wisdom; outwardly he manifests divine might in the expedient of boldness and power. His body spreads throughout the Great Void, how can it have borders? His heart holds the dharma realm, vast without limit. He beneﬁts living beings and expels plagues in a ﬂood of kindness and virtue; brilliantly the light from the lock of hair spreads throughout the great chiliocosm. Perform empowerment with the mantra of Great Black, ruler of sages. Kāla of Peace and Joy Encircling the dharma realm, one with the single truth, is the form of the Kāla of Peace and Joy who takes form expediently; manifesting the adamantine, shining like the Great Sun, is the mind of emptiness and awakening that emits light. Inwardly he encompasses the compassion and mercy of dharma nature; outwardly he manifests the boldness and power of a god. His body has six arms, and his face has three eyes. His upper left hand holds a battle-axe that shines like lightning;112 the middle hand, a halberd; and the lower hand, a wisdom sword. His upper 112 I follow Hou in reading yue 鉞 “battle-axe,” for yue 越. ZFW: 374 n. 1; DZJP vol 1: 420. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 47 right hand holds a tiered drum than resounds like thunder; the middle hand, a lasso; and the lower hand, a skull cup. His feet tread on seven stars and he wears a skirt of tiger hide. His divine might is illustrious and shines all over the great chiliochosm; his imposing sagely appearance protects everything in the worlds of form and non-form. Three eyes observe the things of the three realms, four teeth bite oﬀ the root of the four kinds of birth.113 Six arms demonstrate the six powers, two feet […] the two pneumas.114 He controls human lifespans and ﬁlls in the astral o ces in the Six Books. He sweeps away demons of the [heterodox path?] and protects nearby countries. He increases lifespans to the length of tortoises and cranes, everyone […] eternally boundless good fortune and kindness […] land, benevolence covers the dark regions. All experience supreme bodhi and suddenly expunge ﬁnite deﬁlements. The second manifestation is the yak a god of Peace and Joy, beneﬁting things and people with his great ﬁerce mien. His noble image is so extraordinary it shatters demons’ courage; his numinous might is so powerful it puriﬁes worldly customs. With compassion and mercy in mind, he protects those in the dark and the light; correctly following the opportunities he sweeps away karmic dust. He dictates lifespan and increases salary and rank; inwardly he is one with truth and wisdom in the dharma king body. Perform the empowerment. Kāla of the Sun and Moon The great sage far from the light of Mt. Sumeru, the sun, and the moon is true pure pneuma; the sublime dharma body is everywhere simultaneous with the ripening and ﬂowering of great fruits and ﬂowers. It is impossible to exhaust the substance that encompasses the dharma realm, its slivers of light clear and bright; there is no 113 114 I.e. birth from an egg, a womb, from moisture, or through transformation. The six powers are the six abhijñā. 48 Megan Bryson limit to the mind that covers the great void, contentedly empty and quiet. His face has two eyes and his body has four arms. The upper left hand supports the wisdom of the sun, the lower holds a skull cup;115 the upper right hand carries the lunar disk, the lower grasps a halberd spear staﬀ. Four arms control the pneuma of the four seasons, and three eyes manifest the ﬂow of the three powers.116 The crow in the sun has in its feet a heavenly gate of the three kinds of knowledge;117 the rabbit on the dark side of the moon possesses an earth axis of the ﬁve-colored rays of light.118 The Vajra being reveals his characteristics, expediently drawing in those with and without form; the Flower Storehouse stirs up the wind, accurately distinguishing equal awakening and sublime awakening.119 He boldly vanquishes robbers and bandits, their hearts cold and courage wavering, and he suddenly expels the followers of violent thieves. He benevolently protects enemies and friends with pure roots and clean bodies, and releases us people from our debts. The god of the light of the sun and moon in the Great Void, the third manifestation of Kāla has perfect buddha nature. […] void light encompasses worlds as numerous as the sands [of the 115 In the manuscript this line reads zuo shang tuo rizhi, xia zhi kulou zhi bei 托日智智骷髏之杯. DZJP vol. 1: 422. I follow Hou in suspecting that the second zhi, “wisdom,” should be a character meaning “to hold” such as chi 持 or peng so that the statement makes sense. ZFW: 374 n. 2. 116 The three powers are heaven, earth, and humans. 117 The “three kinds of knowledge” (sanzhi 智) refers to the knowledge of those on the two vehicles of pratyekabuddhas and rāvakas; the knowledge of bodhisattvas; and the knowledge of buddhas (Dazhidu lun, T. 1509p646b21ﬀ.). 118 Hou has removed the character se 色 from the term wuseguang 五色 to retain a parallel structure with the previous line, but I do not see other justiﬁcation for this omission. ZFW: 375 n. 1; DZJP vol 1: 422. 119 These are the last two stages on the Mahāyāna path: bodhisattvas that are essentially indistinguishable from buddhas have “equal awakening” dengjue 等覺, but have not yet reached the stage of “sublime awakening,” miaojue 妙覺. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 49 Ganges], soaring pure pneuma protects the Golden Field.120 […] similarly mixes the ﬁve beauties. He boldly and powerfully defeats robbers and bandits with the might of the wind; he ﬂows to the source of the Flower Storehouse and perfects the single vehicle.121 Perform empowerment with the mantra of the god of the Sun and Moon. Kāla of the Golden Bowl In the great black pool is the Golden Bowl transformation of Kāla, a strong and imposing manifestation. In the ten Flower Storehouses is the purity of the naturally real Vairo[cana], one with the dharma nature. He is irrigated by the nine dragons in the sea of fragrant water, which expansively ﬂows to the ocean; he protects the Three Jewels in the purple-gold ﬁeld, and everywhere guards the dharma. His head has three faces, and his body has one torso. Each face has three eyes, and his torso has six arms. His upper left hand holds a bell that transmits [sound] to the three realms, the middle a conch cup, and the lower a bow; his upper right hand holds a vajra that moves the ten directions, the middle a conch cup, and the lower an arrow.122 A dragon supports his throne and his two feet rest on a lotus. His jade form […] shines; the moon in the mind is clear and bright. His golden mien mixes with the glow;123 the peak in the sea is towering and lofty. Six arms sweep away the six kinds of dust, three faces eliminate the three poisons. Nine eyes perceive the nine states, one body puriﬁes the one mind.124 For o cials’ misdeeds he 120 “Golden Field” (jintian 金田) refers to a monastery. I’m reading yuan , perfect or complete, for yuan , park or imperial tomb. 122 Hou notes that the manuscript includes a superﬂuous character yi 亦 after the phrase “the middle a conch cup.” ZFW: 375 n. 2; DZJP vol 1: 423. 123 Hou omits the term ronghun 融混, “mixes with,” to maintain parallel structure with the previous line, but I see no other justiﬁcation for this omission. ZFW: 375 n. 3; DZJP vol 1: 424. 124 The nine states (jiu you 九有) refer to the nine states of happiness for 121 50 Megan Bryson commutes prison sentences;125 in disasters he removes distress. Golden Bowl Great Black God of the Black Pool: the fourth manifestation of the god is most ﬁerce and vigorous. His wisdom eye perceives beyond the realm of dust from afar; he absorbs what is in the minds of others, beyond their innermost thoughts.126 Golden Bowl circles the throne and jumps into fragrant water; he raises his ﬁst with the jewelled vajra and stops the halberd dagger-axe. From then on all disasters and danger stop occurring, and numinous light dazzles and glows throughout the Sahā world. Perform empowerment with the mantra of the god of the Golden Bowl. In the underworld, determining life and death, expediently appears the Sage of the Great Black Graveyard; in the place of correct awakening, perfecting phenomena and principle, manifests the God of the Hall of Universal Light.127 With numinous might, he boldly and ﬁercely governs the dark and light [regions], measuring good and evil; with pure pneuma he rides the glow straight into heaven and sentient beings, which include the states of humans and gods in the realm of desire, and the four states in each of the realms of form and formlessness. See the Chang ahan jing [Dīrghāgama], T. 1p56a28ﬀ. Hou omits the character qing 清 from his version of the text so that it reads yi shen jing yi xin 一身淨一心 rather than yi shen qingjing yi xin 一身清淨一心. This is done to maintain the parallel structure of the lines, and does not change the meaning of the text. ZFW: 375 n. 4; DZJP vol 1: 424. 125 I follow Hou in reading xing 刑, “punishment” (here referring to prison sentences), for xing 形, “form.” ZFW: 375 n. 5; DZJP vol 1: 424. 126 This line reads in Chinese, taxin zishe cunfang guo 他心自攝寸方 . Cunfang, “square inch,” refers to the perceived size of people’s hearts, and thus symbolizes one’s innermost thoughts. 127 Hou omits the character zheng , “correct,” that precedes juechang 覺場, “place of awakening,” in the manuscript to maintain the parallel structure of the text, but I see no other justiﬁcation for this omission. In the manuscript the character shi , “principle,” is written as a correction to the right of the character si 四, “four.” ZFW: 376 n. 1; DZJP vol 1: 425. The Hall of Universal Light (Puguangming dian 普明殿) is the name of the hall in which the Buddha preaches the Huayan jing. It is said to be in the country of Magadha. See Dafangguang fo huayan jing, T. 279p57c23–24. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 51 earth, inscribing sorrow and joy.128 His face has three eyes, and his body has eight arms. His upper left hand holds a ruler, the middle a seal, the third a rope, and the bottom a willow branch; his upper right hand holds a bell with a clapper, the middle a seal, the third a round bell, and the bottom a bowl. Bracelets of snakes and vipers adorn his body, and his feet tread on an elephant and a boar. Eight arms suddenly expel the eight deviations; three eyes constantly perceive the three secrets.129 The boar is Five-Wisdom Mañju rī, the manifestation of the empty, quiescent nonborn; the elephant is the Sattva of Myriad Practices, the source of the true, shining non-extinguished.130 The chief and attendant overlap; the buddha body is everywhere.131 Begin illuminating from quiescence, and springtime will produce a myriad households; distinguish expedients according to suchness, and the moon will shine on one-thousand rivers. He liberates the souls of the dead, illuminating their minds so that they see the true nature. He protects and guards lifespans, that beings may cast oﬀ death and return to life. He rules over the dark department, ascending the steps of the ten stages;132 he weighs prosperity 128 The phrase that I translate, “inscribing sorrow and joy” is ketou qixiu 刻紏戚休, but I am unsure of the meaning of ketou in this context. 129 The eight deviations probably refer to the eight deviant practices listed in the Chang ahan jing [Dīrghāgama], which are the eight practices opposing the Eightfold Path. See T. 1p59c29–p60a3. 130 The “Sattva of Myriad Practices” probably refers to the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who often appears as a pair with Mañju rī and embodies practice, in contrast to Mañju rī’s association with wisdom. Samantabhadra’s mount is a white elephant, which also corresponds to this description. The inclusion of Mañju rī and Samantabhadra reinforces the Huayan orientation of this text, as they form a kind of trinity along with ākyamuni in Huayan worship. 131 The idea of the chief and attendant overlapping comes from Huayan doctrine, where it refers to the idea that the chief and attendant (or primary and secondary) positions change depending on one’s perspective. The phrase, “chief and attendant overlap” (zhuban chongchong 主伴重重) appears in several Huayan commentaries, including Chengguan’s 澄觀 (738–839) Dafangguang fo huayan jing shu 大方廣華嚴經疏. See T. 1735p503a15. 132 In his text Hou omits the character bi 陛 from the term bijie 陛 , 52 Megan Bryson in the human world, bathing in the good fortune of the nine heavens. Great Sage of the Graveyard, ﬁfth manifestation of the god Kāla expresses his divine might awesomely. His terrible visage radiantly ﬂoods heaven and earth; the light of his mercy vastly nourishes the mountains and rivers. Dark and light, good and evil, are judged in the vermillion book; common and noble, fruit and cause, are encompassed in the jade tablet. He nourishes life in those who posit souls and wriggle like worms; he causes those who realize the emptiness of souls to awaken to the sublime Golden Immortal [i.e. the Buddha]. Perform empowerment with the mantra of the Graveyard God. The ritual of Sovereign akra Kāla will be performed. […] unsurpassed Heaven, manifests the auspicious form of akra-devānām Indra; the single true nature of the sandalwood forest is in reality the dharma king Vairocana. Fierce and strong is his position among the seven deities, he is awesomely martial and mighty; as the supreme sovereign in the Good Dharma Hall, his civilized appearance is reﬁned.133 One body inside the golden gate [i.e., the palace], two arms on the jade torso. His right hand holds an auspicious jewelled seal, while his left hand reaches out to a youthful sage. The seal controls the shores within the territory of the four continents, and the sage realizes the fruits of the Dragon Flower Triple Assembly.134 “steps” or “stages,” that appears in the manuscript. This is done to maintain the parallel structure of the lines, and does not change the meaning of the text. ZFW: 376 n. 4; DZJP vol 1: 426. 133 The “Good Dharma Hall” (Shanfa tang 善法堂) is the name of the preaching hall in Indra’s heaven. 134 The text reads Sizhou 泗洲, a place name in Eastern China, but I read it as 四洲, “four continents,” both for meaning and the parallel with the number in “three assemblies.” The “Dragon Flower Triple Assembly” refers to the three assemblies that Maitreya will convene under the Dragon Flower Tree after achieving buddhahood. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 53 His virility and bravery give rise to anger and wrath, and he ﬁghts in battle against the asuras; his reﬁnement and benevolence manifest in the world of red dust, and he preserves the mind of an infant.135 He illuminates the teachings in the supreme vehicle and great vehicle; he encompasses the multifarious things in the great ultimate and the limitless.136 He saves from birth and death, transforming the past and present. His kindness moistens the three teachings and nine schools; his virtue covers the four kinds of beings and the six paths.137 Everyone bathes in the region of Great Peace; all sing in the heaven of Ultimate Joy. In the azure canopy [of the sky] is akra-devānām Indra; in the six paths is Kāla, the supreme sagely deity. His marvelous countenance rises loftily to the purple gate [of the palace]; his benevolent heart vastly expands over the world of red dust. Jewelled crown and garlands illuminate the three realms; embroidered screen and clinking metals guide the myriad people. He subdues evil demons and returns them to correct awakening; he rejoices in the celestial perfected ones in the Mysterious Realm of Jade Clarity.138 Perform empowerment with the mantra of the deity Sovereign akra. The ritual of Treasure-Store Kāla will be performed. 135 I follow Hou in treating the phrase hong shi zhi chen 紅視之塵, which is di cult to render comprehensibly, as hongchen 紅塵, “red dust.” ZFW: 377 n. 1; DZJP vol 1: 427. 136 Hou inserts the character yu in the second part of this line to make it more grammatically correct and parallel with the previous line. The manuscript reads gai senluo taiji wuji該森羅極無極, while Hou’s version reads gai senluo yu taiji wuji 該森羅極無極. It does not change the meaning signiﬁcantly. ZFW: 377 n. 2; DZJP vol 1: 427. 137 The “three teachings and nine schools” (sanjiao jiuliu 教九流) refers to the various religious and philosophical traditions known in China. The four kinds of beings are those born from eggs, wombs, moisture, and transformation. 138 Jade Clarity (Yuqing 玉清) is one of the three pure realms in Daoism, below the realms of Supreme Clarity (Shangqing 清) and Ultimate Clarity (Taiqing 清). 54 Megan Bryson The brave Vajra being, pneuma pure and sharp, is none other than the deity Treasure Store who guards the region; the true buddha-nature, mind completely interpenetrating, he in fact embodies the sublime teachings of the dharma realm. Impetuous and brave, he sweeps away the thousand obstacles like wind and thunder, protecting the nation and the people; like a mighty lion he expels the myriad demons, creating power and good fortune. His body has eight arms, and his face has three eyes. His upper left [hand] holds a pestle, the second a wheel, the third a bow, and the bottom a rope;139 his upper right hand grasps a sword, the second a wheel, the third an arrow, and the bottom a prong. […] holds a golden wheel, he rides a lion mount. His three eyes perceive the three realms, and his eight arms pacify the eight directions. The wheel lotus shines like the sun and moon; the lion [mount?] ﬁerce [like?] birds and beasts. He realizes cause and eﬀect in the ﬁfth and sixth stages; in dark [and light] realms he saves sentient and nonsentient beings.140 Giving su cient food and troops, he puts a rest to the empire’s wars; expelling plagues and pestilence, he cuts oﬀ misery in the human world. Observe the seven manifestations of Mahākāla and realize the samādhi of Vairocana’s Ocean Seal. Mahā Treasure-Store protects the city steadfastly; images of the seven manifestations of Kāla have been drawn. The transformation body of buddha form is truly most supreme; the mind of the deity melds with the buddha, originally lacking pervasiveness.141 139 Hou adds the character shou 手, “hand,” after zuo shang , “upper left,” in his text, but the manuscript omits it. He also includes the character er 而 in his text between the upper left hand and the middle left hand, though the manuscript is illegible there. ZFW: 377 n. 3–4; DZJP vol 1: 428. 140 Hou notes that the character he renders as yang 陽, here referring to the realm of the living, is illegible in the manuscript. ZFW: 377 n. 5; DZJP vol 1: 429. 141 I translate ben wu bian 本無 as “originally lacking pervasiveness,” but it might make more sense to read bian 邊, “boundary,” for bian , “pervasiveness.” Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 55 The dharma gate has more than 80,000 teachings; the Great Secret is expressed as one, many, and non-dual. The mighty brilliance of his wrath sweeps away troops and disease; the Vajra Lotus moon is naturally dark and mysterious. Perform empowerment with the mantra of the Treasure-Store deity. Praise to the Holy Consort White Sister Oﬀering the bright pearl, experiencing the fruits of buddhahood, is none other than the true immortal, the daughter of Sāgara.142 Assisting the Fierce Sage [Nāgārjuna], assisting the Dragon Flower, is in fact the Divine Mother, the empress incarnation of Maitreya.143 Greatly Auspicious White Sister of the Flower Garland has the digniﬁed bearing of a phoenix. Called [Mahā riye] in Sanskrit, she is as chaste and pure as ice and frost.144 The pneumas of yin and yang are two, but heaven and earth are as one. Her head is crowned by three dragons and her body has two arms. The dragons are divided into central and supporting, and the realms are subsumed under desire, form, and nonform. Her left hand is placed on her heart, pointing to the principle that the deluded heart illuminates the awakened heart.145 Her right hand rubs the 142 This of course refers to the nāga girl who attains buddhahood in the Lotus sūtra. See Miaofa lianhua jing T. 262p35c6ﬀ. 143 The “ﬁerce sage,” mengsheng 猛聖 refers to Longmeng 龍猛, another name for the Madhyamaka (and esoteric) patriarch Nāgārjuna, who is also called Longshu 龍樹. The Dragon Flower, Longhua 龍華, refers to the kind of tree under which the future buddha Maitreya will preach the dharma. Hou Chong gives zheng 正 before “Dragon Flower,” which would make the line read, “rectiﬁes the Dragon Flower.” However, the manuscript repeats zhu 助, “to assist,” in this phrase. It is possible that this was corrected by a note that does not appear on the manuscript copy, but I will follow the manuscript version because Hou does not give a reason for using zheng instead. 144 The term Mahā riye is written in siddham script in the original text; it is equivalent to the Chinese term dajixiang that I translated as “Greatly Auspicious,” which here refers to the goddess rī. Hou gives the transliteration in ZFW: 378. For the Siddham script, see DZJP vol 1: 430. 145 The original text reads “the deluded mind illuminates the awakened 56 Megan Bryson youth’s crown, opening the gate of the physical [crown] shining on the crown of emptiness.146 She sometimes ascends to the Toad Palace [i.e. moon] in the clouds, joins with Changheng, and realizes the fruits of the Five Powers.147 She occasionally assembles in the Great Oceanic Storehouse, riding the waves, and becomes the worthy of the Three Assemblies.148 Her hidden virtue shines, as the light from between her eyebrows permeates heaven and earth; her digniﬁed bearing is immaculate, with a jeweled canopy covering her dragon topknot and dragon crown. She is attended by divine youths and followed by palace ladies. Those who adopt [preaching according to] category will all be reborn in the inner courtyard; those who understand form and emptiness will all gather in the maṇḍala.149 mind,” mixin ming juexin 迷心明覺心之理, but Hou Chong sees ming, “illuminates,” as superﬂuous, and would render this line as “the principle of the deluded mind and the awakened mind,” mixin juexin zhi li. Since Hou has not given a compelling reason for this omission I will follow the original. See ZFW: 378 n. 2. 146 The text here reads “the physical shines on the crown of emptiness,” rou guang kongding 肉空頂. Rather than seeing the ming in the previous sentence as superﬂuous, I suspect that the character ding that should appear after “physical” was omitted. This would ﬁt the parallel structure and sense of the passage better, as the xin 心, heart, in the previous phrase was repeated three times, and both phrases refer to the principle of the mundane leading to the ultimate. This second phrase has the structure “open the… gate,” kai… men 開…門, but here men (gate) refers to a principle or viewpoint. 147 Changheng 嫦姮 is another name for the Chinese goddess of the moon, more commonly known as Chang’e 嫦娥, and also as Heng’e 姮娥. 148 Hou Chong adds the character hua 華, ﬂower, to the term “great oceanic storehouse,” aohai zang 鰲海藏, making it “great oceanic ﬂower storehouse,” aohai huazang. The term “ﬂower storehouse” refers to the Huayan image of the world existing in a lotus ﬂower that grows out of a fragrant sea, so this addition would make sense, but again, Hou gives no rationale for adding the character other than parallelism. See ZFW: 378 n. 3. The Three Assemblies (sanhui 會) refer to the gatherings under the Dragon Flower Tree and the worthy is presumably Maitreya. 149 The character between zi 資 (here “adopt”) and lei 類 (category) is illegible in the original text, but the phrase zi suilei 資隨類, “[preaching] according to the category [of the audience]” appears in the text Miji lishi Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 57 Great holy consort of the awesome Kāla, her esteemed name is White Sister Auspicious and Subtle.150 At the Dragon Flower Assembly she rises to the position of non-action;151 on the Esoteric Altar she possesses the majesty of form. She once oﬀered the bright pearl and inscribed the thought of buddhahood; she has reaped the fruits of the Way and improved her spiritual capacity.152 Demure celestial maidens follow; the glorious holy circle gathers like clouds. Perform the empowerment of the Holy Consort.153 Attendants surrounding the maṇḍala Yin is demons, yang is gods; the two pneuma are the creative force between heaven and earth. Hearing is not listening, looking is not seeing; only non-being is what remains of the time between the end and the beginning. They are discovered in the extremes of the climates of the four seasons; they are born from the principle of the natures of the myriad things. Gods and demons intersect in the great secret meeting; yin and yang mingle in the circle of the superior vehicle. The main worthy has the noble majesty of three plus four transformations; the surrounding attendants are made up of 28 followers.154 daquan shenwang jing jiesong 密跡力士大權神王經偈頌 [Scripture and Verses of the Greatly Expedient Divine King, the Vajra Secret Traces]. See T. 1688p778a14. My translation here is tentative. The “inner courtyard” is one of two courtyards in Maitreya’s Tu ita Heaven. 150 The term for “Auspicious” could also be read as the goddess rī. 151 “State of non-action” refers to the condition in which one no longer engages in karmic causality; it is another term for nirvāṇa. 152 I am unsure of the translation of “improved her spiritual capacity,” zhu shenji 助神機. 153 Hou Chong has added Baijie (White Sister) and zhenyan (mantra) to the text to make it conform to the pattern in the section of the seven forms of Mahākāla. See ZFW: 378 n. 4–5. 154 Hou adds zhi 之 to his text to make it more grammatically correct and 58 Megan Bryson Now, the Five-Eyed Elder wears a skeleton on his crown. In his left hand a trident pierces a human head, and in his right hand a qiantuo 乾 turns a bell.155 The Seven-Eyed Elder raises in his hand a vajra hook, and his feet tread on nitā[…]ka.156 The Great General of the East makes the three-teeth seal with his teeth and lips; his hands hold a waisted drum and white conch cup.157 The Great General of the South wears as a necklace human hands threaded through seven heads and his hands hold a poisonous snake and one sword. The Great General of the West makes the three-toothed vajra [mudra?] with his left hand and with his right hand holds a rotating trident. The Great General of the North wears on his head ﬁve human heads with crow beaks, and holds a conch cup while making the three-teeth seal. The King of Swift Wind holds the tail of a three-headed snake and receives wayward souls so that they can return to the correct path. parallel with the previous line. The manuscript reads banrao ershiba shicong 伴繞八侍從while Hou’s version reads banrao ershiba zhi shicong 伴繞八之侍從. It does not change the meaning signiﬁcantly. ZFW: 379 n. 1; DZJP vol 1: 432. 155 Qiantuo 乾 can transliterate ka āya, a reddish-yellow color (and the term for the monastic robe of that color), or Mt. Yugandhara, one of the seven golden mountains. In this context, however, neither meaning makes sense. The full line, qiantuo fan lingkou 乾翻鈴 , suggests that the qiantuo is turning the bell. 156 The term nitā[…]ka is given in Siddham script, and part of it is missing; I follow Hou Chong’s reading. I have found no explanation of this term’s meaning. 157 The “tooth seal” (chiyin 齒印) was a way of signing o cial correspondance by leaving tooth imprints on the document in question. I have found no references to the “three-teeth seal” mentioned here. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 59 The Great Fire-Starting King wears a horse head on his crown atop a wheel of ﬁre and [holds] a truly precious vajra sword. The Nāgī of Good Fortune is yellowish-white in color and appears as a bodhisattva. She holds a [maṇi pearl?] […] The Great Ferocious King is black in color and has an open mouth.158 His hands hold a skull cup and a trident. The Eastern Celestial Maiden has a pure body and a face as beautiful as a lotus. She ascends to the White Cloud Throne. Her four arms display the swirling rays of the sun and moon and show a precious sword and spear. The Southern Celestial Maiden has on her body the wonderful marks of a bodhisattva. Her throne is full of lotus ﬂowers. Her six arms reveal fragrant fruit, ﬂower garlands, and a bofu jewelled vajra.159 The Western Celestial Maiden has a graceful ﬁgure, a beautiful countenance, and stands on a throne of precious gems. Her four arms hold a lamp and sail. On the eastern side there is a willow branch, and she supports a ding 鼎 incense burner. The Northern Celestial Maiden joyfully rides a horse mount and lifts the seven stars of the Big Dipper. Her six arms reach up to oﬀer the tiger head and brandish a vajra bell. The Eastern Ox-Head Demon King has a blue-green body and treads on a poisonous snake; his arm raises a hard, sharp vajra sword. The Southern Bird-Head Demon King has a black body and stands on a precious stone. His hand holds a sharp axe that beheads 158 The text reads shen chui hei chi 身垂 , which would mean that his body is (in?) a black pool. Though the image of the black pool is associated with the Golden Bowl Kāla, here it makes more sense to read the line as shen chui hei se 色, meaning that his body is black in color. This wording appears below in the text’s description of the Southern Bird-Head Demon King. 159 I suspect that the term bofu 鉢浮 is a transliteration of a non-Chinese term, as it appears in the name of the devarāja Bofuduo 鉢浮多 in the Zhengfa nianchu jing, T. 721p147b25. 60 Megan Bryson an evil demon. The Western Rabbit-Head Demon King has a blue-green body and stands on a white goose, raising in his hand a ﬁve-colored ﬂagstaﬀ. The Northern Tiger-Head Demon King has a yellow body and stands on a corpse. The Eastern Lion-Head Strongman has a blue-green body and clothing with a celestial tile pattern.160 His hands hold a bag of wind and reveal a blue-green vajra. The Southern Dog-Head Strongman has a yellow body and holds a bow and arrow in a shooting pose. The Western Phoenix-Head Strongman has a red body and carries on his back a halberd and battle axe. The Northern Boar-Head Strongman has a green body and his mouth appears ready to bite. His hand holds a blue-green, three-headed, poisonous snake. Sanziqianyizi 子遣一子 has eight eyes for helping the dharma. He holds a jewel and displays the ﬂowers of a dharma king.161 The Frog-Head Strongman ties up the demon lords and hungry ghosts. There are three frogs in his bag. 160 Hou has switched the wording of the manuscript, shen se xian qing 身色現青, “the color of his body appears blue-green,” to shen xian qing se 身現青色, “his body appears blue-green in color.” This does not aﬀect my translation. ZFW: 379 n. 2; DZJP vol 1: 434. I translate tian zhuan yi 磚衣 as “clothing with a celestial tile pattern,” but the phrase literally means “celestial tile clothing.” I am unsure of its meaning. 161 Hou Chong divides this line as chi bao xian fa wang 持寶現法王, but this makes the beginning of the next line the “Flower Frog-Head Strongman” (Hua hamatou lishi 花蛤蟆頭力士). Though the meaning of the “ﬂower of the dharma king” is also unclear, it makes more sense within the text than the alternative. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 61 The Ox-Head Great Man has a strangely colored body.162 He also expels monsters. His hands hold a demon bag and an upright blue-green vajra. The Horse-Head Strongman has two […] marks and holds in a basin ten varieties of heads. Habhakā Great Strongman’s face exposes his mouth […].163 His right hand holds a trident, and his left hand holds a waisted drum. It is di cult to exhaust the praises of the mighty virtue of devas, demons, and gods. There is no end to the varieties of the style of the secret lineage. As expedient transformations, the wrathful forms are the chief and attendant ﬁgures; in reality, the compassionate forms realize eﬀect and cause. There are god forms, demon forms, and human forms that expel the wicked and support the correct. They rely on the the buddha jewel, dharma jewel, and saṅgha jewel to save beings and beneﬁt living things. All travel to the supreme, unsurpassed gate; everyone awakens to the principle of grasping the center in the center. The maṇḍala of Great Black is transmitted outside the teachings; yin and yang meet and merge, naturally profound and mysterious. The four plus three primary sages are transformations of Kāla; the twenty-eight followers are manifestations of gods and demons. The dharma vessel, wide and deep, shines like the sun and moon; the majestic demeanor, in its perfection, spreads like the clouds and mist. Why not be stained by the dust and toil of worldly custom? Arriving at this ultimate vehicle makes it like heaven. Perform empowerment. The ritual of the good gods of the ten directions will be performed. 162 Unlike the other ﬁgures listed here, who are identiﬁed as strongmen (lishi 力士), the Horse-Head ﬁgure is called “Great Man” (dashi 大士). I suspect that this is a mistake, and that he should be a strongman as well. 163 The term Habhakā is written in Siddham script. I am following Hou Chong’s rendering. 62 Megan Bryson Now, in the ten directions there is the principle of upholding the correct and the merit of guarding and protecting. People on land do not take borders as boundaries, but come wherever there is virtue. Sea dwellers all line up the capital of the Flower Storehouse, and go wherever there is no examination.164 [The gods of the ten directions are] Kau ika of the East, the Fire-God Divinity of the Southeast, the Dharma King Yama of the South, the Rāk asī […] of the Southwest, the Nāga King Varuṇa of the West, the Wind God King of the Northwest, the Treasure-Storehouse Great God of the North and retinue, the devarāja Mahe vara of the Northeast, Great Brahmā devarāja of the Upper Direction, and the earth deity Pthivī of the Lower Direction and retinue. They each pacify the eight directions and serve as worthies in the ten lands. All display the kindness of protecting and blessing and widely spread the virtues of compassion and benevolence. They eradicate the origins of unforeseen obstacles and increase the source of limitless fortune. Husband and wife live in harmony, sons and grandsons enjoy good fortune, the six kinds of domesticated animals multiply, and the ﬁve grains are abundant. Floods, ﬁres, robbers, and thieves cease; illness, unnatural events, and evil spirits are wiped out. [Whatever] one seeks will come true; all one’s wishes will be fulﬁlled. They completely envelop the worlds of the ten directions; each guards the border without crossing it. Above and below, the four corners each have a ruler; which one rules things, people, and myriad phenomena? They initiate the creation of heaven and earth and sustain national boundaries; they evaluate the secret circle and slaughter enemy demons. The true countenance of extreme good fortune rectiﬁes clouds and rain; the saving dharma that sustains increases ledan 樂單.165 164 These two lines have parallel construction, but I am unsure of the meaning of the end of the second line, wu cha ze wang 無察則往, “go wherever there is no examination.” 165 The second part of this line ends with the three characters le dan duo 樂單多, which I read as “increases ledan;” however, this could also be the Chinese transliteration of a non-Chinese term. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 63 Perform empowerment with the mantra of the Good Gods of the Ten Directions. Come up to praise the eight sages and seven divine forms in Great Black’s dharma assembly maṇḍala. The gods descend to the altar in response to common beings’ sincerity. They spread the dharma, extend lifespans, and bring beneﬁts. Awakening to the most deep and profound principle, they […] rush to the consummate dharma gate, save beings from the dark and light realms, and increase and cultivate blessings and wisdom. […] Abbreviations and bibliography Abbreviations Yang Shiyu 杨世钰, Zhao Yinsong 赵寅松, and Guo Huiqing 郭惠青, eds. 2008. Dali congshu: dazangjing pian 大理丛书：大藏经篇. Five volumes. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe. JSP Yang Shiyu 杨世钰 and Zhang Shufang 张树芳, eds. 1993. Dali congshu: jinshi pian 大理丛书：金石篇. Ten volumes. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. T. Takakasu, J. and K. Watanabe, eds. 1924–1932. Taish shinshū daiz ky . Tokyo: Taishō issaikyō kankōkai. YNSLCK Fang Guoyu 方国瑜, ed. 1998–2001. Yunnan shiliao congkan 云南史料刊. Thirteen volumes. Kunming: Yunnan daxue chubanshe. ZFW Fang Guangchang 方廣錩, ed. 1998. Zangwai fojiao wenxian 外教文獻 vol. 6. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe. DZJP Primary sources Beifang Pishamen Duowen Baozang Tianwang shenmiao tuoluoni biexing yigui 方沙門多聞寶王神妙羅尼別行儀軌. T. 1250. Bukong Juansuo shenbian zhenyan jing 不空羂索神變言經. T. 1092. Chang ahan jing 長含經. T. 1. Chongxiu Fotu ta ji 重修圖塔記. Zhao Chunyi 趙純一. 1575. In JSP vol. 10. Da Chongsheng si beiming bing xu 大崇聖寺碑銘並序. Li Yuandao 李源道. 1325. In JSP vol. 10. 64 Megan Bryson Dafangguang fo huayan jing shu 大方廣華嚴經疏. T. 1735. Dafangguang fo huayan jing 大方廣華嚴經. T. 279. Dahei tianshen daochang yi 大神道場儀. Transliterated and edited by Hou Chong 侯冲. In Fang Guangchang 方廣錩, ed. 1998. Zangwai fojiao wenxian 外教文獻 vol. 6. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe. Daikoku tenjin h 大神法. Jingai 神愷. T. 1287. Dale jingang bukong zhenshi sanmeiye jing bore boluomiduo liqu shi 大樂金剛不空實昧耶經般羅蜜多理趣釋. T. 1003. Dapiluzhena chengfo jing shu 大盧遮那經疏. Yixing 一行. Early eighth century. T. 1796. Dazhidu lun 大智論. T. 1509. Foshuo Baozang shen daming mannaluo yigui jing 說寶藏神大明曼拏羅儀軌經. T. 1283. Foshuo sheng Baozang shen yigui jing 說聖寶藏神儀軌經. T. 1284. Foshuo sheng Duoluo pusa jing 說聖多羅菩薩經. T. 1104. Foshuo suiqiu ji de dazizai tuoluoni shenzhou jing 說隨求即得大自在羅尼神呪經. T. 1154. Foshuo Wenshu pusa zuisheng zhenshi mingyi jing 說文殊菩薩最勝實義經. T. 1189 Foshuo zuisheng miao jixiang genben zhi zuishang mimi yiqie mingyi sanmodi fen 說最勝妙吉祥根本智最祕密一名義摩地 . T. 1187. Guangshi wuzhe daochang yi 廣無遮道場儀. Transliterated and edited by Hou Chong 侯冲. In Fang Guangchang 方廣錩, ed. 1998. Zangwai fojiao wenxian 外教文獻 vol. 6. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe. Ji gu Dian shuo ji 記滇說集. Zhang Daozong 張道宗. Late thirteenth century (extant version dates to 1549). In YNSLCK vol. 2. Jingang daguanding daochang yi 金剛大灌道場儀. In DZJP vol. 3. Keiranshūy shū 溪嵐拾葉集. Compiled by Kōshū 宗 (1276–1350). 1348. T. 2410. Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經 [Skt. Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra]. Translated by Kumārajīva (344–413). T. 262. Miji lishi daquan shenwang jing jiesong 密跡力士大權神王經偈頌. T. 1688. Mikky daijiten 密教大辞典. Matsunaga Sh d , ed. Kyoto: Mikky jiten hensankai, 1931-33. 3 volumes. Mouli mantuoluo zhoujing 牟梨曼羅呪經. T. 1007. Nanhai jiguinei fazhuan 南海寄歸內法傳. Yijing 義淨 (635–713). 691. T. 2125. Pubian guangming qingjing chisheng ruyi baoyin xin wunengsheng damingwang dasuiqiu tuoluoni jing 普明清淨熾盛意寶印心無能勝大明王 Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 65 大隨求羅尼經. T. 1153. Qixian shan Bao’en fancha ji 棲賢山報恩剎記. Yang Sen 楊森. 1326. In Li Chunlong 李春龙 and Niu Hongbin 牛鸿斌, eds. 2007 [1940s]. Xinzuan Yunnan tongzhi 新纂雲南通志 vol. 5. Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe. Renwang bore boluomi jing 仁王般羅蜜經. Translation attributed to Kumārajīva (344–413). T. 245. Renwang huguo bore boluomiduo jing shu 仁王護國般羅密多經疏. Liang Bi 良賁 (717–777). T. 1709. Renwang jing 仁王經 (full title Renwang huguo bore boluomiduo jing 仁王護國般羅蜜多經). Translated by Amoghavajra (aka Bukong 不空; 705–774). T. 246. Tongyong qiqing yigui 通用啟請儀軌. In DZJP vol. 1. Wenshu suoshuo zuisheng mingyi jing 文殊所說最勝名義經. T. 1188. Wuzhe dengshi fahui yi 無遮燈食法會儀. In DZJP vol. 4. Xiu Baijie Shengfei Longwang hemiao beiji 修姐聖龍王廟碑記. Li Wenhai 李文海. 1461. In Lijun shizheng 麗郡詩徵. Compiled by Zhao Lianyuan 趙聯 (Qing). 1914. Yunnan: Yunnan tushuguan. Yiqie jing yinyi 一經音義. Huilin 慧琳 (737–820). T. 2128. Y son d j kan 要道場觀. Shunnyū 淳祐 (890–953). T. 2468. Yunnan zhilue 雲南志略. Li Jing 李京. 1301. In YNSLCK vol. 3. Zaoxiang liangdu jing 造像量經 (Skt. Sambaddhabhā itapratimālak aṇavivaranī). Probably translated from the Tibetan by Gonpokyab (Chn. Gongbu Chabu 布查布). Mid-eighteenth century. T. 1419. Zhaozhou Nanshan Da Fazang si bei 趙南山大法寺碑. 1421. In JSP vol. 10. Zhengfa nianchu jing 法念處經. T. 721. Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui 諸菩薩金剛等啟請儀軌. In DZJP vol. 2. Secondary sources Abramson, Marc S. 2008. Ethnic Identity in Tang China. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Berger, Patricia Ann. 2003. Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh. 1968. The Indian Buddhist Iconography. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay. Chapin, Helen B. 1970. “A Long Roll of Buddhist Images (I).” Edited and annotated by Alexander C. Soper. Artibus Asiae 32.1: 5–41. 66 Megan Bryson Chaudhuri, Saroj Kumar. 2003. Hindu Gods and Goddesses in Japan. New Delhi: Vedams eBooks. Copp, Paul. 2011. “Esoteric Buddhism in Song Dynasty Sichuan.” In Orzech, Sørensen, and Payne, eds. 2011a: 431–434. Davidson, Ronald M. 2002. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History. New York: Columbia University Press. Elliott, Mark C. 2001. The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Faure, Bernard. 2003. The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Frédéric, Louis. 1995. Buddhism. Flammarion Iconographic Guides. Paris and New York: Flammarion. Fu Yongshou 傅永寿. 2003. Nanzhao fojiao de lishi minzuxue yanjiu 南诏教的历史民族学研究. Kunming: Yunnan minzu chubanshe. Gaulier, Simone, Robert Jera-Bezard, and Monique Maillard. 1976. Buddhism in Afghanistan and Central Asia, vol. 2. Leiden: E.J. Brill. Grupper, Samuel. 1980. “The Manchu Imperial Cult of the Early Ch’ing Dynasty: Texts and Studies on the Tantric Sanctuary of Mahākāla at Mukden.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Bloomington: Indiana University. Hansen, Valerie. 1993. “Gods on Walls.” In Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory, eds., Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press: 75–113. He Mei 何梅. 2005. “Hanwen dazangjing gaishu” 汉文大藏经概述. Fayin 法音 3: 30–37. Hou Chong. 1994. “Dahei Tianshen yu Baijie Shengfei xin ziliao yanjiu” 大黑天神与白姐圣妃新资料研究. Dali wenhua 大理文 86.2: 54–57. _____ 2006a. “Dali guo xiejing yanjiu” 大理写经研究. Minzu xuebao 民族学 4: 11–60. _____ 2006b. Yunnan yu Ba Shu fojiao yanjiu lungao 云南巴蜀教研究论稿. Beijing: Zongjiao wenhua chubanshe. Howard, Angela F. 1996. “Buddhist Monuments of Yunnan: Eclectic Art of a Frontier Kingdom.” In Maxwell K. Hearn and Judith G. Smith, eds., Arts of the Sung and Yüan. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 231–245. _____ 1997. “The Dhāraṇī Pillar of Kunming, Yunnan: A Legacy of Esoteric Buddhism and the Burial Rites of the Bai People in the Kingdom of Dali (937–1253).” Artibus Asiae 57.1–2: 33–72. Howard, Angela, Li Kunsheng, and Qiu Xuanchong. 1992. “Nanzhao and Dali Buddhist Sculpture in Yunnan.” Orientations 23.2 (February): 51– 60. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 67 Iyanaga Nobumi 弥永信美. 2002. Daikokuten hens 大天変相. Kyoto: Hōzōkan. Jordaan, Roy E. 1997. “Tārā and Nyai Lara Kidul: Images of the Divine Feminine in Java.” Asian Folklore Studies 56.2: 285–312. Lee Yü-min 李玉珉. 1995. “Nanzhao Dali Daheitian tuxiang yanjiu” 南詔大理大天圖像研究. Gugong xueshu jikan 故宮學術季刊 13.2: 21–48. Li Donghong 李红. 2000. Baizu fojiao mizong: Achili jiaopai yanjiu 白族教密宗—— 叱力教派研究. Kunming: Yunnan minzu chubanshe. Li Lin-ts’an 李霖燦. 1967. Nanzhao Dali guo xin ziliao de zonghe yanjiu 南詔大理國新資料的綜合研究. Taiwan Nan’gang: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan minzuxue yanjiusuo. Li Xiaorong 李小荣. 2003. Dunhuang mijiao wenxian lungao 敦煌密教文献论稿. Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe. Liebenthal, Walter. 1947. “Sanskrit Inscriptions from Yunnan (I).” Monumenta Serica 12: 1–40. _____ 1955. “Sanskrit Inscriptions from Yünnan (II).” Sino-Indian Studies 5.1: 46–68. Luce, Gordon H. 1970. Old Burma – Early Pagán. 3 vols. Artibus Asiae Supplementum 25. Locust Valley, NY: J.J. Augustin. Luo Zhao 罗炤. 2003. “Jianchuan shiku Shizhong si di liu ku kaoshi” 剑川石窟石钟寺第六窟考释. In Zhao Yinsong 赵松, ed., Baizu wenhua yanjiu 2002 白族文化研究 2002. Beijing: Minzu chubanshe: 364–428. Matsushita Emi. 2001. “Iconography of Mahākāla.” M.A. thesis, The Ohio State University. McBride, Richard D., II. 2004. “Is There Really ‘Esoteric’ Buddhism?” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 27: 329–356. Mollier, Christine. 2008. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Orzech, Charles D. 1998. Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. _____ 2006. “The ‘Great Teaching of Yoga,’ the Chinese Appropriation of the Tantras, and the Question of Esoteric Buddhism.” Journal of Chinese Religions 34: 29–78. _____ 2012. “The Trouble with Tantra in China: Reﬂections on Method and History.” In István Keul, ed., Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond. Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter: 303–326. Orzech, Charles D., Henrik H. Sørensen, and Richard K. Payne, eds. 2011a. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill. 68 Megan Bryson _____ 2011b. “Introduction: Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia: Some Methodological Considerations.” In Orzech, Sørensen, and Payne, eds. 2011a: 3–18. Payne, Richard K. 2006. “Introduction.” In Payne, ed., Tantric Buddhism in East Asia. Boston: Wisdom Publications: 1–31. Reichle, Natasha. 2007. Violence and Serenity: Late Buddhist Sculpture from Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Schipper, Kristofer. 1993. The Taoist Body. Berkeley: University of California Press. Sharf, Robert H. 2002. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Sørensen, Henrik H. 2011a. “Astrology and the Worship of the Planets in Esoteric Buddhism of the Tang.” In Orzech, Sørensen, and Payne, eds. 2011a: 230–244. _____ 2011b. “Esoteric Buddhism in the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms (ca. 800–1253).” In Orzech, Sørensen, and Payne, eds. 2011a: 379–392. _____ 2011c. “On Esoteric Buddhism in China: A Working Deﬁnition.” In Orzech, Sørensen, and Payne, eds. 2011a: 155–175. Stablein, William George. 1976. “The Mahākālatantra: A Theory of Ritual Blessings and Tantric Medicine.” Ph.D. Dissertation, New York: Columbia University. Stein, Rolf. 1993. “Buddhist Mythology.” In Yves Bonnefoy, ed., Asian Mythologies. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press: 119–121. Strickmann, Michel. 1996. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard. _____ 2002. Chinese Magical Medicine. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Tian Hong 田鴻. 1991. “Dali diqu xinyang Dahei tianshen yuanliu kaoshuo” 大理地信仰大神源流考說. In Lan Jifu 藍富, ed., Yunnan fojiao lunwen ji 雲南教論文集. Gaoxiong: Foguang chubanshe: 215–239. Urban, Hugh. 2003. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religions. Berkeley: University of California Press. Wang Haitao 王海涛. 2001. Yunnan fojiao shi 云南教史. Kunming: Yunnan meishu chubanshe. Wedemeyer, Christian K. 2013. Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology, and Transgression in the Indian Traditions. New York: Columbia University Press. Whitﬁeld, Roderick. 1982. The Art of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum. Tokyo: Kodansha International in co-operation with the Trustees of the British Museum. Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom 69 Wilson, Liz. 2003. “Human Torches of Enlightenment: Autocremation and Spontaneous Combustion as Marks of Sanctity in South Asian Buddhism.” In Liz Wilson, ed., The Living and the Dead: Social Dimensions of Death in South Asian Religion. Albany: SUNY Press: 29–50. Yang Fuxue 楊富學. 2002. “Nanzhao Dali Dahei tian chongbai jiqi yingxiang” 南詔大理大崇拜影響. Hualin 華林 2: 231–236. Yang Yanfu 杨延福. 1985. “Fengyi Beitangtian gu jingjuan qingli zayi” 凤仪汤天古经卷清理杂忆. Dali wenhua 大理文 4: 55–63. Yang Zhengye 杨政 . 1994. Baizu benzhu wenhua 白族本主文 . Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe. Yü Chün-fang. 1991. “Der Guanyin-Kult in Yunnan.” In Albert Lutz, ed., Der Goldschatz der drei Pagoden: Buddhistische Kunst des Nanzhaound Dali-Königreichs in Yunnan, China. Zürich: Museum Rietberg Zürich: 28–39. Zhang Xiaogang 张小刚. 2005. “Dunhuang ruixiangtu zhong de Yutian huguo shenwang” 敦煌瑞像中的于阗神王. Dunhuang yanjiu 89.1: 50–56. Zhao Lu 赵橹. 1983. Lun Baizu shenhua yu mijiao 论白族神话教. Kunming: Zhongguo minjian wenyi chubanshe. Zhou Yongxian 周泳 . 1958. “Fengyi xian Beitangtian Nanzhao Dali guo yilai guben jingjuan zhengli ji” 凤仪汤天南诏大理国以来古本经卷整理记. In Li Jiarui 李家瑞, Zhou Yongxian, Yang Yucai 杨毓才, and Li Yifu 李一夫, eds., Dali Baizu Zizhizhou lishi wenwu diaocha ziliao 大理白族自治州历史文物调查资料. Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe: 7–21.

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS

Log In

Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) – A study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi

Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) – A study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi

Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) – A study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi

Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) – A study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi

Mahākāla worship in the Dali kingdom (937–1253) – A study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi

Related Papers

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS