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The Representation of Non-Buddhist Deities in Khotanese Paintings and Some Related Problems

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Studies on the History and Culture Along the Continental Silk Road

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Abstract

Some deities that do not present Indian peculiarities can be observed very often in Khotanese paintings in Buddhist temples or on votive wooden tablets. They present unique features that render any identification extremely challenging. In the past, scholars developed two theories. According to Markus Mode, these deities could have been introduced by Sogdian immigrants and they should be then identified as Zoroastrian ones. According to B. Marshak, they are possibly local ones and should not be associated with Sogdian gods. In the present study, it will be discussed as Marshak hypothesis seems to be more correct especially in the light of very recent archaeological discoveries in Khotan.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kumamoto (2009); Skjaervø (2004). Fragmentary manuscripts in Khotanese language have been found during excavations not always conducted according to scientific criteria (especially the very first ones) and in the repository in Dunhuang: Kumamoto (1996).

  2. 2.

    Cribb (1984, 1985).

  3. 3.

    Hedin (Hedin 1899), Stein (1907).

  4. 4.

    Chavannes (1903, p. 125).

  5. 5.

    Emmerick (1967, p. 75); Gropp (1974, pp. 30–34). It is worth observing that some new chronological data as recently proposed for the history of Khotan could actually confirm such an early introduction of Buddhism: de La Vaissière (2010).

  6. 6.

    Several fragmentary woolen textiles embellished with typical Hellenistic subjects were excavated at Shanpula (southeast of Khotan) during Chinese archaeological expeditions. Another fragment representing the head of Hermes with his caduceus was excavated at Loulan cemetery: Rhie (2007, pp. 272–275). Japanese expeditions in the beginning of the twentieth century discovered around Khotan oasis even terracotta statuettes of Serapis-Harpocrates and Herakles: Rhie (2007, pp. 265–266). All these objects could represent importations from the Kushan Empire where Hellenistic subjects (even divine) had always encountered great fortune. Cultural contacts between Shanshan kingdom and the Kushans appear very clearly at the Buddhist site of Miran where two stupas (M.III and M.V) embellished with painted programs definitely show elements rooted in early Ghandaran art: Filigenzi (2006), Santoro (2008), Lo Muzio (2012), Francfort (2014).

  7. 7.

    It is particularly problematic reconstructing this period although in some Chinese sources it is actually repeated that the tributary territories of the Hephtalites stretched from Persia in the west to Khotan in the east: Yu (2015, pp. 208, 222, 242, 252, 258).

  8. 8.

    Hansen (2012, pp. 199–234).

  9. 9.

    Forte (2012). It is worth observing that Sasanian coins have not been excavated in Khotan while they can be found in good quantity around Turfan and Kucha in the Tarim Basin: Thierry (1993).

  10. 10.

    Maggi (2009, 2015).

  11. 11.

    de La Vaissière (2010, p. 86).

  12. 12.

    Djakonova (1961), Williams (1973), Gropp (1974).

  13. 13.

    Mode (1991/1992).

  14. 14.

    毕 (2011). See also: 段 (2015); Compareti (2019).

  15. 15.

    About the Sogdian diaspora in China and Central Asia, see: de La Vaissière (2005). On the so-called Sino-Sogdian funerary monuments, see: Marshak (2001), Lerner (2005), 孙 (2014), Wertmann (2015).

  16. 16.

    Bailey (1985, pp. 76–78), Bi and Sims-Williams (2010); Zhang (2018).

  17. 17.

    Mode (1991/1992, pp. 189–190, n. 44).

  18. 18.

    霍 (2007). I wish to thank Prof. Rong Xinjiang from Beijing University for this reference. On the presence of Khotanese people in Tibet who were artisans, traders and monks, see: Hoffmann (1971, pp. 451–453). Tenth century Vajrayana Buddhist texts in Khotanese have been found in Dunhuang but they are most likely translations from Tibetan originals: Maggi (2015, p. 867).

  19. 19.

    Djakonova (1961).

  20. 20.

    Grenet (2010).

  21. 21.

    Riboud (2005).

  22. 22.

    Taddei (1987).

  23. 23.

    Grenet (1994, 2010), Compareti (2009).

  24. 24.

    Bailey (1982, p. 1). Such “problems” between Buddhists and non-Buddhists in Khotan could be related to those seven kings who did not adhere to the religion of the Enlightened One and, according to the Tibetan Prophecy of the Li Country, reigned before Vijaya Virya. See also: 荣 (2015, pp. 318–329). According to the Tangshu, the people of Khotan worshiped the “Heavenly God” and Buddha. Chavannes had no doubts in identifying this “Heavenly God” with a Zoroastrian deity: Chavannes (1903, p. 125). 段 (2015).

  25. 25.

    Shishkin (1963, Fig. 76), Silvi Antonini (2006).

  26. 26.

    Compareti (2015a).

  27. 27.

    Gnoli (2009, pp. 146–149), Wendtland (2009).

  28. 28.

    Belenitskii and Marshak (1981, p. 31).

  29. 29.

    Nana was definitely the most venerated deity in Penjikent and probably in the whole Sogdiana: Grenet and Marshak (1998). She was worshiped in Bactria (Potts 2001) and in Khwarezm too (Minardi 2013).

  30. 30.

    Compareti (2006, p. 369), Kageyama (2007), Hiyama (2013, pp. 130–135).

  31. 31.

    Lo Muzio (2006), Forte (2014), 张 (2015); Lo Muzio (2019).

  32. 32.

    Djakonova (1961), Williams (1973).

  33. 33.

    Rowland (1974, p. 128).

  34. 34.

    Shenkar (2014, p. 119).

  35. 35.

    Potts (2001, pp. 30–31).

  36. 36.

    Forte (2015).

  37. 37.

    Hansen (2012, pp. 47–48).

  38. 38.

    Maggi (2009, pp. 364–365).

  39. 39.

    Baumer (1999).

  40. 40.

    Lo Muzio (2006); Lo Muzio (2019).

  41. 41.

    Ghose (2006).

  42. 42.

    Lo Muzio (2006, p. 192).

  43. 43.

    Compareti (2015b).

  44. 44.

    Djakonova (1961, Figs. 1, 5), Williams (1973, Figs. 57–64).

  45. 45.

    According to Xuan Zang and the Prophecy of the Li Country, the princess was Chinese: de La Vaissière (2010, p. 86). The same story is reported in the Tangshu: Chavannes (1903, p. 126). On silk production in Khotan: Duan 2013.

  46. 46.

    Mode (1991/1992, Fig. 17.c).

  47. 47.

    Mktrychev and Naymark (1991).

  48. 48.

    Grenet (1986, Fig. 47).

  49. 49.

    Stein (1907, pl. LXI); Catalogue Tokyo, 1985, pl. 102–103. It is not possible to state that green was the color associated with this god because in some wooden tablet the pigmentation of his garments faded away. See for example: Stein (1907, pl. LXIII).

  50. 50.

    Lapierre (1990: 34).

  51. 51.

    Shenkar (2014, Fig. 112).

  52. 52.

    Yamazaki (1990).

  53. 53.

    Grenet and Pinault (1997, p. 1058), Shenkar (2014, Fig. 110).

  54. 54.

    Panaino (1995, pp. 47–85).

  55. 55.

    Millard (1999).

  56. 56.

    Black and Green (1992, p. 134); Compareti (2017).

  57. 57.

    Yamazaki (1990, pp. 55–56).

  58. 58.

    I wish to thank Prof. Mauro Maggi from Rome University “La Sapienza” for his kind reading of this inscription that fully confirmed previous translations. The Khotanese inscription can be read like this: “The donor Budai ordered to draw the eight spirits [gods] there. May they protect him”.

  59. 59.

    Rong and Zhu (2019).

  60. 60.

    Bernardini (2003).

  61. 61.

    Mode (1991/1992, p. 186). One scholar identified that god with a Yaksha: 张 2015.

  62. 62.

    Grenet (2012).

  63. 63.

    Panaino (2015).

  64. 64.

    李 (2011, pp. 40–41). Kira Samosjuk (whom I wish to thank) kindly called my attention to a specific thirteenth-century Xixia thangka from Khara Khoto at present kept in the State Hermitage Museum where eight horsemen also appear around the main central figure of Kubera/Vaishravana (Sulla via della seta. L’impero perduto, 1993, cat. 56). Not only do a couple of horses seem to have a decorative element on their heads, like the ones from Khotanese paintings, but there is also the detail of five cups in the lower part of the thangka with something inside that seems to be a trident or a flame or even a bird flying into the cup. Unfortunately, that detail is not clear and in the catalogue mentioned above those elements are described as “sacrificial offerings”. It is not clear if there is some connection between the Xixia and Khotanese paintings although the Buddhist milieu again seems to be confirmed.

  65. 65.

    Bunker (2001).

  66. 66.

    Compareti (2013, p. 28; 2015c; 2019, p. 127).

  67. 67.

    Mode (1991/1992, p. 187).

  68. 68.

    Gnoli (2009, pp. 146–149).

  69. 69.

    Gropp (1974, Fig. 81).

  70. 70.

    Zhang et al. (2008, Fig. 5).

  71. 71.

    Lo Muzio (2006, pp. 193–199); Lo Muzio (2019).

  72. 72.

    Meng Sihui (whom I wish to thank) suggested an astronomical-astrological identification for the deities appearing together with the god behind confronted horses in the painting on the eastern wall at Temple CD4. This is just another possibility and it is very clear that in the Tarim Basin too (like everywhere else in the ancient world), astronomy-astrology was kept in high consideration. An eighth to ninth-century painted paper scroll embellished with the signs of the zodiac displaying very strong Indian (and, possibly, Iranian) elements have been found in the region of Turfan and it is at present kept in Berlin: Grenet and Pinault (1997). No image of a deity resembling the god behind confronted horses can be observed in that painted scroll but it should be noted that just the signs of the zodiac and not the personifications of the luminaries have been depicted there. So, it cannot be ruled out the hypothesis that, in case of the representation of the sun, there could have been a deity like the one in Khotan behind confronted horses.

  73. 73.

    Barrucand (1990–1991).

  74. 74.

    Caiozzo (2003).

  75. 75.

    Grenet (2001).

  76. 76.

    Bailey (1979, p. 40; 1982, p. 29). In his review to Bailey (1982), J. Russell insisted just on this curious occurrence. However, in Russell’s opinion, the fact that in Khotanese the sun was called urmaysde could not be a precise allusion to Zoroastrian belief but to more general pre-Islamic Iranian religious aspects not easy to identify. Unfortunately, that review by Russell was published more than thirty years ago in a publication whose title the author himself does not remember. I wish to thank J. Russell who confirmed his hypotheses about Khotanese religion in a personal communication.

  77. 77.

    Silvi Antonini (2006).

  78. 78.

    Naymark (2003, p. 17).

  79. 79.

    Names of local deities submitted to Buddha appear in some Khotanese documents that were found in Dunhuang: Skjaervø (2002, p. 34). Some carpets from Shanpula looted in 2008 and confiscated by local policemen definitely show mythological scenes that could be rooted in Indian culture and religion: Zhang (2016; 2019). Even though it is not possible to identify anyone of those Indian deity with local ones, it is clear that, in the fifth-seventh centuries, non Buddhist gods were well-known in Khotan. Despite such hints about the persistence of pre-Buddhist Khotanese deities at Dandan Oilik and Domoko, some scholars have tried to demonstrate that those deities were rooted in Indian Buddhist traditions. On the occasion of the International Symposium of the Tibetan Plateau and the Silk Road: Artistic Exchanges between Tibet, Khotan and Dunhuang, 9th-13th Centuries (Hangzhou 8-11 November 2019), Zhang He presented a very interesting paper about the identification of the deities in Dandan Oilik and Domoko paintings with Buddhist protective deities specifically invoked for diseases of children. However, the winged protective deities with animal heads that she identified in a ninth century Chinese-Khotanese Buddhist text found in Dunhuang and at present kept in the British Museum (Ch. 00217 a-c, see: Lo Muzio (2019, fig. 13) could have some points of contact with the deities discussed by Lo Muzio (2006; 2019) but are iconographycally different from those presented in this paper such as the "silk god" and, above all, the god behind confronted horses who do not have any precise parallel in the artistic milieu of neighboring kingdoms (India, Sogdiana, China, etc.).

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  1. Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China

    Matteo Compareti

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    Xiao Li

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Compareti, M. (2020). The Representation of Non-Buddhist Deities in Khotanese Paintings and Some Related Problems. In: Li, X. (eds) Studies on the History and Culture Along the Continental Silk Road. Silk Road Research Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7602-7_7

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