Explore For Garuda Graphic In Qiuci Grottoes

Located in the west of Xinjiang and adjacent to Central Asia,Qiuci is a Buddhist cultural and artistic resort on the ancient Silk Road between China and the West.The Buddhist grottoes are famous for their murals.The “Heaven Picture”,which was built in the third century A.D.and lasted until about the tenth century,is one of the unique themes of the murals in Qiuci grottoes.It conveys the world view of Buddhism through the images of the gods in the Buddhist world,such as the sun god,the moon god,the Garuda and the wind god.Among them,the Garuda,as one of the important components of the celestial phase map,has a distinctive and prominent image,with the characteristics of multi-cultural and multi artistic style integration,and is the product of the influence of ancient Central Asia,West Asia,South Asia,Greece and Rome and other Eastern and Western cultures and arts.In the grottoes of Qiuci area,there are three kinds of common images of Garuda: Eagle(bird),double headed bird and human faced bird.They have different origins.There are also subtle differences in the feathers,tail and snake of Garuda.In the grottoes,the Garuda appears in the central part of the main chamber dome,sometimes in some special places.By combing the image of the Garuda in Qiuci grottoes,this paper analyzes the image and sculpture art characteristics of the Garuda in different civilizations and regions including ancient Persia,ancient India and ancient Greece,and explores the origin,connotation and artistic characteristics of the image of the Garuda in Qiuci grottoes.