A Study Of The Buddhist Ceremony

As a special type of the image of Buddhist devotees, the murals of emperors and empresses paying homage to Buddha are usually composed of a crowned protagonist in an outing with servants surrounding and followers behind him or her. Based on the study of the murals of emperors and empresses paying respect to Buddha in Cave Bin yang of the Long men Grottoes and the Grottoes of Gong County in Central China’s Henan Province, this thesis elaborates on the status and significance of these works in the historical development of Chinese fine arts and tries to unveil the tremendous image turn behind the birth of images of emperors and empresses in the Northern Wei period (386-534) of China. The thesis consists of three sections, exploring the birth, features and influence of images of emperors and empresses paying homaging to Buddha respectively. Based on her review and re-analysis of the portrait tradition before the Northern Wei period in Section One, the author demonstrates that there had been a tradition of no portraits for the living or emperors in Central China. Then in Section Two the author discusses the three features of the murals of emperors and em-presses paying homage to Buddha as an innovative form in the history of Chinese fine arts. In the final section, the author analyses the form of the murals of emperors and empresses paying respect to Buddha from the perspectives of Buddhist idea, the influence of image and the unique features of the Northern Wei ethnicity, and reveals that later generations witnessed in-depth and extensive development of this form based on the imitation of it in stating and tomb fine art with new factors such as folk beliefs, Taoism, etc.