Nirvana And Death: A Case Study Of The Underground Palace In Qingshan Monastery Of Tang Dynasty And Its Religious, Artistic And Cultural Context

This article tries to give an interpretation of the architectural space,image system,and combination of the artifacts of the underground palace in Qingshan Monastery, Lin-Tong. The aim is to discuss the ritual functions and symbolic meanings of this typical underground palace of Tang Dynasty from a wholistic perspective. Since each crypt can be viewed as a piece of art that has been designed with unique ritual and functional meaning, and its each part is organically related in a system, the study of the images and the objects of the underground palace should be reconstructed in the specific time and space in the original context.Apart from embedding the common meaning that most of Tang Dynasty underground palace have, the uniqueness of the Qingshan Monastery one lies in that it has a Precious Canopy for Buddha Sakyamuni’s Relic showing a Nirvana imagery, and that there is an almost completely preserved image system(including frescos,stone gate line engravings) and artifacts system。In the first place, this article discusses the typical meaning of the Qingshan Monastery underground palace in the whole system of burying of Buddha ’s Relics,considering the development of burying of Buddha’s Relics of Tang Dynasty and its particular political context in Wuzhou Period. Next, the article revealed its basic characteristics as a underground palace of Tang Dynasty, from the perspective of its architectural form, objects, and images, and considering the extent remains of Tang Dynasty underground palace. The article then focuses on the Nirvana imagery and tries to explore the lineages of the powder painting and the details of the Nirvana imagery, according to the historical texts and Buddhists images’ lineages.The whole art system of the underground palace is not just a simple fusion of the contemporary secular tombs, but has its basis from the classical texts and rituals of Buddhism,manifesting the Buddhist Nirvana idea of being transcendence of death and living. On theother hand, it is also a Chinese localization of the Buddhist art, reflecting the deeply rooted indigenous tomb tradition. With a wide international perspective of art through the silk road(both in land and in sea) of Tang Dynasty, the interactions between the burying of Buddha ’ s Relics and secular tombs manifested in the Qingshan Monastery underground palace is a great fusion of the art of typical Tang Dynasty.