The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

268 THE GOLDEN AGE AND END OF BUDDHIST ART
•
this pyramid or prasada was built the actual
stupa dome; circumambulation was possible at
each successive level. 10 The interest in this
monument from our point of view lies in its
resemblance to the great Mahayana sanctuary
of Barabudur in Java. Both may derive from a
common Pala prototype. A more original form
of Tibetan architecture is represented by
the fortress-style of monasteries and palaces,
perhaps ultimately derived from ancient Near-
Eastern prototypes. These skyscraper structures,
like the Potala at Lhasa, are built of stone
204. Chorten in Western Tibet
f
and sun-dried bricks with the white-washed
walls thicker at the bottom so that their sloping
lines echo the contours of the surrounding
mountain peaks. Doors and windows repeat
this rhythm in becoming narrower at the top.
and, like the Nepalese type, is surmounted by a
square harmika, and a mast upholding a tier of
'telescoped' umbrellas surmounted by a flame
finial [204]. A large monument at Gyan-tse [205]
shows a rather unusual plan and elevation: it is
erected in five stepped terraces on a polygonal
plan with multiple recessions or step-backs 9
;
on
25 50 75 IOO FEET
5 10 15 20 25 METRES
Our main interest in the art of Tibet lies in
the perpetuation of the forms and iconography
of the last phase of Buddhist art in India. The
almost unbelievably conservative nature of
Tibetan art enables us to discern these survivals
even in modern examples of Tibetan art, made
either at Lhasa or in the Lama temple at Peking.
In Tibetan sculpture we can find the perpetuation
of the form and iconography of Indian
images of the early periods. Any number of gilt
bronze images dating from the sixteenth to the
twentieth century faithfully reproduce the
drapery formula of the late Buddhist statues of
Gandhara, in which the folds are reduced to a
network of strings affixed to the surface of the
body. The actual proportions, facial types, and
ornaments of these and other Tibetan images
are invariably reminiscent of the sculpture of
Bengal from the seventh to the twelfth centuries.
The earliest known examples of Tibetan
painting are a number of fragments discovered
at Tun-huang that presumably date from the
period of Tibetan occupation of this site in the
tenth century. We may choose as a typical
illustration the banner of Avalokitesvara, surrounded
by forms of the goddess Tara and
scenes from the litany of the Bodhisattva of
205. Gyan-tse, chorten