| The term "Sino-Tibetan" is often employed in art historical discourse without a historical definition, as a self-explanatory concept; however, the term is nothing more than a marker of hybridity: it does not indicate how these Chinese and Tibetan traditions come together. This dissertation examines five case studies in order to both reach a renewed understanding of Sino-Tibetan synthesis and illuminate different aspects of the process through which these traditions coalesced during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Approaching these temples as both sites of political propagation and cultural negotiation, I argue that in order to explore the formation of this distinct synthetic visual vocabulary one must focus on contextual factors such as the significance of sponsorship and geographical location, rather than on exclusively formal issues of style and iconography, which have traditionally dominated the field. Documentary evidence suggests that these temples, while found primarily along the Sino-Tibetan border, are the products of both imperial and local patronage. Thus I argue that the primary distinction to be made in the development of Sino-Tibetan wall painting in the temples I am considering is not between metropolitan or provincial locations and visual idioms, but rather between imperial and local programs of sponsorship. I also consider the corresponding rise of Tibetan interest in Chinese visual modes within these same local contexts, focusing on the development of the Tenth Karma-pa's "Chinese style thang-ka painting."... |
