On the Development of Buddhist Visualization in Central Asia: A Comparative Study of Art and Text
| Project/Area Number |
16520045
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Indian philosophy/Buddhist studies
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Agriculture |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMABE Nobuyoshi Tokyo University of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Professor, 農学部, 教授 (40222377)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2006)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
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| Keywords | Buddhist visualization texts / Guanfo sanmei hai jing / Guan wuliangshou jing / consecration / Guanjing bianxiang / Turfan / Dunhuang / mural paintings / Yogalehrbuch / 莫高窟 / 楡林窟 / 文献 / 美術 / 禅観僧壁画 / トヨク石窟 / バイシハル石窟 / クチャ / キジル石窟 |
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| Research Abstract |
1. Visionary consecration is a common image in Buddhist visualization texts. This is a mystical experience in which the meditator encounters various deities (like Brahma and Indra) in his vision and is consecrated by them. In this experience, the liquid sprinkled by these deities enters the head of the practitioner and fills his body. I believe this image originally came from the legend that the Buddha was consecrated by Brahma and Indra just after his birth. This originally legendary motif was at some point combined with the old meditative image of gratification and happiness filling the body like water, and another legendary motif of rays of light entering the head of the Buddha. Thus, the alleged experience of the Buddha was internalized and became something that the meditator could experience by himself.
2. In my doctoral dissertation, I argued that the Guanfo sanmei hai jing was an apocryphal text compiled in the Turfan area in the fifth century based on prior Chinese texts. This time I tried to demonstrate the availability of those source texts in the Turfan area in that period by pointing out the existence of early manuscripts of the relevant texts found there.
3. Guanjing bianxiang are paintings supposedly based on the Amitayus Visualization Sutra. However, relatively late pieces of Guanjing bianxiang in Dunhuang substantially deviate from the Amitayus Visualization Sutra. Namely, these paintings contain many objects of visualization not mentioned in the sutra, and the arrangement of the items of visualization does not agree with the system of the sutra, either. I believe both of these phenomena were caused by the misunderstanding of previous paintings of the same motif on the part of the painters. In other words, the painters based their works on their own artistic traditions and were not directly guided by any textual tradition.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(13 results)
