Mogao Cave 361: Illustration of the Sutra on Manjusri with Thousand Arms and Thousand Bowls

CHINA, Gansu, Dunhuang; Tang dynasty

This Mid-Tang (756–846) mural is located to the right of the entrance on the front (east) wall of the main chamber. It is based on the Sutra on Manjusri with Thousand Arms and Thousand Bowls and the Manjusri Method from the Vajraekhara Yoga. Manjusri has a round face and wears a crown with a Buddha image in the middle. The Bodhisattva wears necklaces, beads, bracelets, and other ornaments. A bowl which holds Mount Sumeru with a Buddha seated on the summit is held in the Bodhisattva’s hands. Light radiates around the figure and forms rings of hands, each of which holds a bowl with a seated Buddha. Manjusri sits on a lotus throne atop Mount Sumeru, which rises up from a sea. Two naga kings with the upper torsos of humans and long naga bodies coil around the mountain, and within the sea on each side is an asura and a yaksa. A decorated canopy hangs above Manjusri, and surrounding the large mandorla of hands are Bodhisattvas Suryaprabha, Candraprabha, Vajragita, Vajranrta, Vajramala, Vajralasi, Vajraloka, and Vajradhupa.