1 Hundred Buddhas and 1 Million Charms

This week it’s all about Buddhas and I am jumping between China and Japan but the main image comes again from the Dunhuang Caves. There are so many wonderful paintings, fabrics and documents to become engrossed in it will be hard to drag myself away. I think there will be at least one more post involved.

Buddhas or Bodhisattvas from the British Library : China

Museum number 1919,0101,0.258
9th century

Curator’s comments Zwalf 1985

Among the variety of Buddhist woodblock prints at Dunhuang, those which most eloquently witness personal devotion are fragments of long scrolls, joined sheets of paper carrying hundreds of individually impressed Buddhas or Bodhisattva. One scroll bears dates showing that twenty-one images were printed on certain days each month. The practice spread to Japan where blocks were commonly engraved with ten or 100 small images. There the printed sheets were paid for by devotees but retained by the monastery and enclosed in bundles within carved wooden images.

Printing in all its early forms, from stamps to woodblock to metal plates, was eagerly adopted by the Buddhists as the dissemination of the  knowledge and teachings of Buddha is encouraged to both spread the word and add to the number of good deeds required to ensure a good afterlife. Many Buddhist texts have been found from these early days of printing some like the Diamond Sutra with illustrations.

This is from a very interesting article about Buddhist books from the Navin Kumar Gallery

“No other world religion has made use of such a variety of materials and techniques to transcribe and enrich their sacred books. The Buddhists also cherish a fundamentally different attitude than the Christian or the Muslim toward their sacred texts. The sutras were often copied not for personal use but for several other purposes. Both arduously and beautifully written and even illuminated, books were frequently deposited in stupas and images for one reason or another. The Buddhists firmly believe that such acts not only increase their personal merit but help preserve the faith for posterity as well as augment the efficacy of the monument or image. The Buddhist was never allowed to lose sight of the altruistic aim of commissioning and copying a book and was constantly encouraged literally to worship it. As the Buddha himself tells the god Sakka, or Indra:

But again, Kaus’ika…if someone else truly believes in the Perfection of Wisdom. . .copies it, and preserves and stores away the copy,—so that the good dharmas might last long, so that the guide of the Tathagatas might not be annihilated, so that the good dharma might not disappear, so that the Boddhisattvas, the great beings might continue to be assisted, since their guide will not fail—and finally, honours and worships this Perfection of Wisdom; then the latter begets the greater merit.

 From https://www.navinkumar.com/content/books/manuscripts1988/introduction.html

The Million Pagoda Charms: Japan

British Library Or 78.a.11

The Hyakumantō darani or ‘One Million Pagoda Dharani’ are the oldest extant examples of printing in Japan and one of the earliest in the world. The eighth century Japanese chronicle the Shoku Nihongi records that they were printed between 764 and 770 on the orders of Empress Shōtoku as an act of atonement and reconciliation following the suppression of the Emi Rebellion led by Fujiwara no Nakamaro in 764. Each of the charms was printed on a small strip of paper and placed in a miniature wooden pagoda. The pagodas, which were originally painted white, were then distributed among the ten leading Buddhist temples in Western Japan.

See more from the British Library here: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/one-million-pagoda-charm

This act of atonement involved the massive undertaking to print “1 million” dharani. The text was carved on a series of wooden blocks, (not separate characters), inked and the paper pressed onto the surface.  Many of the little pagodas with their “charms” still exist in museums and temples.

An article from Atlas Obscura makes an interesting comparison with this early large scale printing task with Gutenberg, If you are interested see here.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japanese-buddhist-scroll-gutenberg

The Empress Shotaku/ Koken Wikipedia here

An 18th C painting on silk of the Empress Shotoku looking suitably contrite. She has good reason to because, apart from suppressing rebellions, disposing of her cousin and having an affair with a monk who she promoted to high office, she was deemed responsible for the perception that female Empresses could not really be trusted and so rarely since the 8th Century have women been in charge.

No 3: 200 Bodhisattvas and a Pagoda

Before continuing I had to decide what to call my seated figures: Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. I decided Bodhisattvas were more apt as they are the beings still in search of enlightenment dedicated to helping humanity rather than the fully enlightened Buddha.

Initially I took just two of the figures in their meditation pose, to make a small stamp-like woodcut but that seemed neither respectful enough or diligent enough when compared with the early printings so I decided to go for 100. And so one print developed into a scroll.
Yes, it was a bit rash but it made me think about the meditative process of repetition, so key to Buddhist practice, and then it was all rather relaxing and lovely.

Thinking about sacred saffron again and to make it slightly more interesting to print I decided on a shaded roll and changed the emphasis from yellow/orange at the beginning to orange/red at the end rather like a saffron stamen.

 

Blocks and prints on rice paper and prints drying in the sun

Yellow to orange and orange to red shaded rolls

Just a few Bodhisattvas..

And a scroll.

100  Bodhisattvas printed on rice paper. It’s approx 11 cm high and very long..

The Pagoda

I was going to stop there but felt the Bodhisattvas needed a home. Not having time nor ability to make a beautiful turned wooden shape I made a little paper pagoda.

   

Woodblock and rainbow roll prints.

I tried two different colours in rainbow rolls and as this is was not really in scale with my scroll I made a smaller version of the Bodhisattvas scroll. So tiny they could easily step into their pagoda. 🙂 ..

Yes!  There really are exactly 200 Bodhisattva in all, even though you can’t see them, I (and the Buddha) know!