In Situ Actualization: The Hyper-bodied Bodhisattva in Eighth Century East Asian Art

Abstract

This dissertation investigates a historical moment of open-mindedness about the human body through the visual culture and discourses of eighth-century East Asian Buddhism. In particular, the Buddhist deity of compassion, Avalokiteśvara evolved into multi-headed and multi-armed forms across Asia. Related to South and Central Asian incantation texts, these images appeared in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese sites in ways that appear incongruent to the modern eye: they disrupted doctrinal, iconographic programs; they defied textual prescriptions; and they took advanced hierarchical positions. These apparent anomalies have led to common conclusions that the images merely reference auxiliary ritual for protection or cure. Through this study’s considerations of spatial syntax and careful textual examinations, they reveal themselves to be far more participatory in their environments than cursory glance suggests. In scholarship to date, these images are commonly understood as demonstrative of early esoteric Buddhism, known for elaborate rituals with magical utterances (mantras and dhāraṇī) and hand gestures (mudrās) that require initiation and secrecy. However, there have long been debates as to the exact definition of esoteric Buddhism and its origins. Furthermore, while the ritual manuals allow for image identifications to be made on the basis of iconography, they do not themselves account for the function and the meaning of the image where and as it appears. Instead of seeing these images as neatly aligning with any singular Buddhist tradition, this dissertation focuses on several forces behind their emergence. By investigating the work of those monk-scholars who were behind the proliferation of these images, texts, and rituals, it becomes clear that those who were interested in how the mind works—who were broadly inclusive in their doctrinal thinking while deeply familiar with Yogācāra 瑜珈 lines of thought—were the very foundation upon which the hyper-bodied icon could flourish. My primary art historical contribution is an understanding of the ontology of a divine icon as a projection of the self, especially as aspiring to advanced stages of meditative practice. In my findings, visual images of the deity are expressions of one’s interior actualization on the path to enlightenment rather than hosts to external saviors. Soteriology was based upon a cognitive relationship with reality instead of divine intervention, and these expressions of actualization materialized across the backdrop of an increasingly interconnected world. With that in mind, I employ a methodology that accounts for the full in situ visual contexts of key sites in which the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara appears in Tang China, Silla Korea, and Nara Japan.