Study On The Altar Paintings Of Ashrams In Miluo

Dharma assembly paintings are religious paintings usually used duringthe dharma assembly rites in ancient times, with a history of nearly athousand years since Nan dynasty. Up to now, there are only a smallnumber of areas in which this kind of custom is still maintained. Dharmaassembly paintings showed in the religious rites in Miluo district, in spiteof their subject matter, techniques of expression and artistic features,belong to dharma assembly paintings in folk rites under the influence ofreligion. It is considered as a continuation of ancient dharma assemblypaintings and attached to the category of religious paintings, as well aspossessing a strong feature of folk art. This paper attempts to make a studyon the dharma assembly paintings appeared in the religious rites in Miluodistrict of Hunan province, by means of analyzing different dharmaassembly paintings according to the influence of various forms of religioussects and investigating typical dharma assembly paintings in Miluo districtsalong with the related literature, with the purpose of probing into theirpainting features and cultural connotations. Dharma assembly paintings inMiluo districts evolve from the traditional dharma assembly paintings andpresent the thoughts of Buddhism and Taoism as well as the folk religiousbeliefs. Miluo district was not only the front of Xiang Chu culture in history but also the place where the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan evoked thespirit of the dead King Huai of Chu and drowned himself in the river. It canbe said that the formation and development of Miluo dharma assemblypaintings was closely connected with the historical influence and culturaldeposits. The thoughts of Buddhism, Taoism as well as poets and scholarsfully reflected in the paintings. Gradually it took the shape of Miluodharma assembly paintings equipped with traditional Chinese culture. Asthere is a progressive enhancement of protective awareness of Chinese folkcultural heritage as well as the continuous publishment of documents aboutrelated literature, we would attach more and more importance to theresearch of religious rites paintings.