Article ID: CBB981354729

Transmission of the 'World': Sumeru Cosmology as Seen in Central Asian Buddhist Paintings Around 500 AD (September 2020)

unapi

Satomi Hiyama (Author)


NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin
Volume: 28
Issue: 3
Pages: 411-429


Publication Date: September 2020
Edition Details: Special Issue: Imagining the Heavens. Historiographical Challenges and Eurasian Perspectives
Language: English

This paper considers the process of how the image of Mount Sumeru, the axis mundi of the Indian Buddhist cosmology, was transmitted from the Indo-Iranian cultural sphere to the Chinese cultural sphere in the fifth and sixth centuries. The research focus is mainly on the representations of Mt. Sumeru in the wall paintings of two monumental Buddhist sites from this period, the Kizil Grottoes (Kucha) and the Mogao Grottoes (Dunhuang), with reference to a relevant image in the Yungang Grottoes (Datong). As the monks of Kucha were in direct intellectual contact with contemporaneous India via the Sanskrit language, it is a purely Indian Buddhist cosmological worldview that is reflected in early Kizil paintings. In Dunhuang, on the other hand, the earliest-extant Sumeru representation clearly shows the visual syncretism of Buddhist and Taoist cosmologies. These visual symbols of the “World” are composites of multiple historical factors, such as languages, geopolitical situation of regional powers, and ideological trends of the regions.

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Associated with

Article Sonja Brentjes; Dagmar Schäfer (September 2020) Visualizations of the Heavens Before 1700 as a Concern of the History of Science, Medicine and Technology. NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin (pp. 295-304). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB981354729/

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Authors & Contributors
Huntington, Eric
Mak, Bill M.
Witzel, Michael
Orchiston, Wayne
Jo, Sokhyo
Cherdsak Saelee
Concepts
Buddhism
Astronomy
Cosmology
Science and religion
Astrology
Constellations; zodiac
Time Periods
Medieval
Ancient
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
Taisho period (Japan, 1912-1926)
Places
Asia
Japan
India
Tibet
China
Nepal
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