Kizil Cave 171: Woman Drowning Her Child in the Well

CHINA, Xinjiang, Aksu

This painting is located on the left side of the barrel-vaulted ceiling in the main chamber. According to the Dharmapadavadana Sutra, a woman in Sravasti carried her child to a well to fetch water. There she saw a handsome man playing a musical instrument. The women became so aroused with desire that she mistakenly lowered her child into the well, causing the child’s death. The Buddha told this illustrative story to explain that the “fire of lust can burn wholesome roots.”
In this painting, the Buddha is seated on a rectangular throne. He has a nimbus and an aureole, and wears a monastic robe that bares the right shoulder. The Buddha raises the right hand in a mudra of teaching. A tree is depicted above the Buddha, and on top of the tree is a bird. The woman, to the left, looks back at the Buddha as she lowers her child down the well.