CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

including the Pure Land of the West of Buddha
Amitabha — the Buddha of Boundless Light and the
focus of Pure Land worship. It was apparently surrounded
by a wooden railing with carved balusters
topped by gilt lotus buds, similar to the railing
surrounding the gilt bronze stupa (cat. 161).
The second to the seventh caskets were lowered
into each other by means of lengths of silk, remnants
of which remained in their original positions
when the objects were discovered. Each casket was
fastened by a padlock, with the appropriate key
still in place. All share the same square shape with
chamfered lid but are decorated in different ways.
Each side of this, the second casket, shows one
of the Four Guardian Kings, each of whom is identified
by a cartouche inscribed in similar fashion
to those that identify the Pure Lands on the outer
sandalwood casket. These depictions closely resemble
(and were likely based on) contemporary
paintings on silk or paper, or murals, such as those
found early this century at the Caves of the Thousand
Buddhas at Dunhuang. Foremost among them,
on the front of the casket, is Vaisravana, Guardian
King of the North, easily identified by the small
stupa he supports on his left hand. Behind him, one
of his army of yaksas takes aim at a winged demon
fleeing at the top right, exactly as in a silk banner
now in the British Museum. 2
Vaisravana is seated in frontal view on two
dwarfish figures who crawl out to either side, his
right hand grasping a vajra, or diamond club; the
tiny figure of the earth goddess Prithvi appears
beneath him, tenderly holding his right foot
(a reference to the Khotanese legend with which
Vaisravana, as the patron saint of Khotan, is associated).
The infant on the left, who offers him a
jewel from a pot of treasure, may be the son granted
to the childless king and nurtured by the earth
goddess; other precious items are strewn about
on the ground. The other three Guardian Kings,
Virudhaka of the South at the back of the casket,
Dhrtarastra and Virupaksa of the East and West, at
the left and right, respectively, are seated in similar
fashion: all three, however, look to their right, as if
following Vaisravana in processional order. Besides
their armed followers, each of these three also has a
female attendant, presenting a vase of flowers or
holding an incense burner. In the case of Vaisravana,
there are two male donors: a Chinese emperor,
holding a lotus bud in his left hand
and proferring a coin in the open palm of his right
hand; and the bearded King of Khotan, offering
with both hands a crystalline lump of jade from
that country.
A pair of dragons amid swirling clouds circle
around a single flaming pearl on the lid of the
casket. The chamfered edges feature pairs of animals
amid lush foliage; the vertical sides are
decorated with pairs of human-headed birds, or
kalavinkas, providers of music in the Pure Lands.
476 EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA