The Study Of The Carvings Of Deva In Sichuan And Chongqing In Tang Dynasties

In Tang Dynasty, the united country, booming economy and enlightened absolutism made Buddhism the mainstream among pleb blief. However, the situation changed after the rebellion of An Lushan and Shi Siming. Chengdu became the most significant city in southeast China and took the most important place in contacting with western Asia and Europe. Such trade collision also made the culture in the district of Sichuan and Chongqing mature. Since the formation of the Silk Road was before Tang Dynasty, it had already played an important part in the communication in southwest China. And we can see many evidences in the civilizations of Sichuan and Chongqing, one of these is the carvings of Eight Kinds of Beings in grotto. Among them is the form of Deva. After the collection of hundreds of physical information, I found it usually appears in the grotto in 3 ways:a man like a palace guard wearing armet and armour, sometimes a Yaksha under his feet, or a man had a Griffon headress thing on his head., sometimes even wearing like the Maheshvara with a lotus in his hand. In terms of such phenomena, I tried to find the origins of manuscripts, supposed the relevance with social economic and cross-cultural communication, demonstrated that ancient Sichuan and Chongqing is not a blocking and backward society but an exoteric and creative district. Basing on archaeological materials, historical documents and foreign literature, this thesis is divided into three following chapters.The first chapter will give the Deva a brief introduction in the classic Buddhist scriptures. Meanwhile, by comparing the Deva and other Eight Kinds of beings in different Buddhist scriptures, we can have a clear cognition with the form of the Deva and know the mutual promotion and restraints with other Eight Kinds of Beings.The second chapter is mainly based on the collection of carvings of Deva in Sichuan and Chongqing. After the collection of hundreds of grotto materials, I made a clear characteristic analysis on their heads, bodies, and things held in their hands, at last generally divided them into three periods. The first is the earlier Tang Dynasty, carvings in this period are concentrated distributed on the Jin Niu Road and Mi Cang Road, Guangyuan and Bazhong are the two main district. The second period is started from the 712A.D. and ends by the year of 739A.D, which was the most glorious age in ancient China, and we can see carvings in most parts of the Sichuan Basin. The third period lasts till the Five Dynasties, and distributed focus on the eastern Sichuan and Chongqing. We can see three familiar forms of Deva in those grotto carvings. That is the guard with armet, person had a Griffon headress thing on his head and man wearing like the Maheshvara with a lotus in his hand. But we cannot find the direct origin from Dharma Sutra, so I suggest this form may come from the Silk Road and tried to find some possibilities.In third chapter, I put my doubts into the circumstances of Sichuan and Chongqing’s social economy and tried to find the reason why the Carvings of Deva so popular in this district with two ways. On one hand, the external factor, I supposed that the form of Heracles may have a great influence on this and use the unearthed archaeological materials as the possible proof to compare and analyze. On the other hand, the internal factor, which is the combination of the social economy situation, Tiger and Deva worship and the adoration for Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Through this way we can see the process of culture fusion and the role that Sichuan and Chongqing district played in the Silk Road.The last chapter concludes the whole article. Firstly, through studying the carving of Deva, I think that the Deva worship was accept in Sichuan and Chongqing in earlier Tang Dynasty. Secondly, the mutual effect on the Silk Road made the culture become multiple-the Deva with a Griffon headdress on his head would be a good evidence.