| This dissertation's purpose is to establish the identity of Buddha images--paintings and sculptures--bearing cosmological representations on their bodies. The over life-size standing Buddha in the Freer Gallery of Art, Wash. D.C., Sui Dynasty, is the starting point of the research. Its imagery is related to all extant works of Six Dynasties China; its link with similar Central Asian examples is explored and its diffusion to Japan. The cosmological images from the T'ang Dynasty until the twelfth century are also presented, emphasizing iconographic adaptations.;Another important factor in this investigation is the author's conviction that the imagery of the Cosmological Buddha originated in painting and was later represented in sculpture. When first painted in Central Asia and Tun Huang, the Cosmological Buddha was complemented by several other representations, all celebrating the cult of Sakyamuni. Thus, sculptures of the Cosmological Buddha became a synthesis of a painted iconographic decor, in which such image was one among several representations.;The conclusion that the Cosmological Buddha is Sakyamuni was also reached on the basis of textual evaluation of sacred sources. The possibility of a Vairocana cult, well organized and with its own devotional icons within Six Dynasties Chinese Buddhism, was carefully scrutinized and found to be unsubstantiated.;In establishing such identity, this research is a revision of Japanese scholarship of the past fifty years, which labelled 'Vairocana Buddha', as described in the Avatamsaka Sutra, the images of Buddha containing the cosmos in their divine bodies. Such scholarship is subjected to a critical analysis.;As conscious choice, the author pursued primarily the iconographic aspect of the images and regarded them not merely as a mirror of a style prevalent during a given historical period, but as a concrete expression of a religious belief. Thus, the textual sources were considered to be the truest clue to the images' identity. For this purpose a careful analysis and comparison of the Dirghagama, part IV, or Sutra of Cosmology and the Avatamsaka Sutra, as possible sources of the imagery are presented. (Their translation constitutes Appendix I and II). |
