October 2008

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The interior of the cave is a cubical space with a large central pillar of square plan (Fig. 4). The pillar’s three large niches, on the front, left, and right sides, house three colossal seated buddhas, which are likely to be the buddhas of the three ages, each about three-and- a-half metres high. The principal buddhas are accompanied by pairs of standing bodhisattvas, both of which are preserved in part on the north side of the central pillar. In addition, there are 16 smaller niches along the top of the central pillar that were carved with 16 standing buddhas, each accompanied by a pair of bodhisattvas (Fig. 3). The bodhisattvas are now all damaged or missing, but some important fragments are preserved in museums and collections outside China.3

In the altar on the north side of the central pillar the buddha of the past sits with one foot on the opposite knee between two standing bodhisattvas (Fig. 5). The heads of these images were all removed in the early part of the 20th century. (The current head of the buddha is a replacement.) A massive head in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (Fig. 6) and a hand in the Osaka Museum of Art (Fig. 8) can be identified as those of the bodhisattva standing at the buddha’s right.4 The head is finished with smoothly modelled surfaces, high, arched brows, and sharply defined curving lips. The crown is ornamented with numerous jewels shown with radiant nimbuses. The bodhisattva’s hand has softly curving fingers that hold a small pouch-like object. A similar hand in a private collection is likely to be from the bodhisattva on the buddha’s left (Fig. 7).5 The subtle modelling of soft fleshy hands is consistent with that of the head and standing figures. Such discoveries provide new insight into the original appearance of the cave, its exceptionally fine workmanship and its iconography.

A notable feature of the North Cave is the representation of the bodhisattva as the exclusive attendant of the buddhas. The bodhisattva represents the ideal lay practitioner in Mahayana Buddhism, the form of Buddhism that was predominant in East Asia. In Mahayana Buddhist practice, the path of the bodhisattva came to be recognised as the superior way. Popular scriptures such as the Lotus Sutra and Avatamsaka Sutra present the bodhisattva as one who progresses toward enlightenment without forsaking worldly life and strives for both personal salvation and that of others.

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