A Study Of Cave 25 Of Yulin Grottos

Cave 25 of Anxi Yulin Grottos is well-recognized as one of the most representative which shows originality in its artistic creation. It not only integrated elements from both Chinese and Tibetan cultures, but also fuse the thought of both esoteric and exoteric Buddhism in its artistic presentation. This feature reflects the interaction between Dunhuang Buddhisim and Tufan Buddhism in the early stage of Tufan regime. In this paper, I will try to analyze the structure of the iconographic presentations through an in-depth reading of related texts.It has become a generally accepted view that when analyzing the iconographic presentations in a cave, the layout and overall structure reflects the themes or icons to be highlighted in a given cave. At the same time, each individual iconographic element also has to be examined along the evolution of presentations of this object as well as varied presentations of this objects in different regions. Cave 25 of Anxi Yulin Grottos's structure is well-thought and informative. The main icon of this cave is Vairocana Buddha presented in esoteric style,reflecting the main theme of Huayan Buddhism in this cave. On the wall of the main chamber, the Mandala of eight Bodhisattvas made its first appearance in Dunhuang caves, while other iconographic elements follow the traditional Dunhuang style. The new elements in the main chamber reflect influence by Tibetan Buddhism introduced with the arrival of Tufan rulers. How Dunhuang Buddhism integrate these new elements is the main theme of this paper.This paper will first analyze of the meaning of the central icon of the cave,Vairocana Buddha. The Huaven thought can be clearly seen by the Huaven Trinity formed by Vairocana, and the bodhisattvas Maniusri (Wen-shu-shih-li ????)and Samantabhadra (P'u-hsien ??) by the entrance of the cave. On the walls of the left and right sides of the cave, the pure land Amitabha and Maitreya are depicted respectively and represents the ideas of Buddhalands of ten directions in the past,present, and future that leads one into the dharma realm of the infinite realm of Lotus flower that embodies the pure dharmakaya of Vairocana Buddha. Bhaisajyaguru and Ksitigarbha depicted on two sides of the main wall represents the salvation power and compassion of the Huayen dharma realm. Vairocana in the center of the main wall and eight major Bodhisattvas reflect the ritual of Huayen esoteric practice.To sum up, the four major components each presents a different aspect of Huayen thought with Vairocana as the central theme. The significance of this cave is that its iconographic presentation of this cave inherited the Huayen dharma realm presented with the Vaironcana Buddha image that includes all realms of beings in his dharma body developed in the Northern Zhou period, and integrates new elements from esoteric Buddhism.