Monuments in the Desert: ANote on Economic and SocialRoots of the Development ofBuddhism along the Silk Road

Connie ChinStanford University

To develop into a social institution,a religion must have economic aswell as religious roots. This paperwill discuss material, much of itfound at Dunhuang, whichdemonstrates the economic baseon which the Buddhist religiongrew and became an integral partof life along the Silk Road. Alongthe way it was flavored by diverseethnic groups, languages, andgender relations, as is revealed inthe archaeological, art, anddocumentary evidence.

Beginning as a reaction againstHinduism and rejecting attachmentto all things, Buddhism, paradox-ically, spread along the routes ofcommerce and began to developinto a facet of urban, commercialculture in the Kushan empire, thatcovered a territory which is nownorthern India, western Pakistan,and Afghanistan. During thetransition to Mahayana Buddhismin the Kushan area, the Buddhabegan to take on supernaturalpower; thus worshipping relics ofthe Buddha could bring blessingsto the faithful. Stupas built tocontain the Buddha’s relics spreadacross northern India. Though themonks in these days wereforbidden to worship relics, thelaity was encouraged to pay for theconstruction of stupas and theirdecoration, as well as for thefundamental requirement toprovide food and housing for themonks.

Some Mahayana scriptures,such as the Mahavastu, claimedthat worship of and donations to aBuddha offered tangible benefits.For example, a king who built a

palace full of precious things forthe Buddha could claimBuddhahood from this act of merit.In this text, the main items usedin honoring a Buddha consisted ofthe exotic merchandise latertraded extensively along the SilkRoad: pearls, coral, lapis lazuli,and other precious substanceswere used as religious gifts [Liu1988, p. 93]. The decoration ofBuddhist monuments with silk wasencouraged by the Mahavastu aswell, leading believers to decoratestupas with thousands of silkbanners. The items most valuedin society changed to include theseven treasures needed forBuddhist worship. The worship ofbodhisattvas, future buddhas whocould use their accumulated meritto help the faithful, by extensionimplied that merit, like goods,could be transferred to others orexchanged for good deeds ordonations.

Buddhism had spread rapidlyacross the trade routes all the wayto China by the Han Dynasty. Inthe first century, however,Buddhist communities seem tohave been mostly foreign familiesdwelling in urban centers. By thesecond century CE, missionarieswere translating the sutras inLuoyang. The noted translator-monk Dharmaraksha’s ancestorswere Yuezhi people who hadimmigrated to Dunhuang a fewgenerations before. The Parthianmerchant An Xuan joined AnShigao, a monk, in translating thesutras, a reminder of the com-mercial nature of the foreigncommunity and the closerelationship between Buddhist

missionaries and merchants [Liu1988, p. 140]. The Parthians,Yuezhi and Indians mentioned fromthis time probably all came fromKushana and followed thecommercial routes through CentralAsia into China.

Construction of Buddhist cavesand statues increased during thethird and fourth centuries, reachingits peak during the Northerndynasties. There is a historicalrecord of cave cutting in 397 CE inLiangzhou, and the Dunhuangcaves were started in the fourthor fifth century. The first caveswere sponsored by the FormerLiang, a dynasty that administereda vast territory from the Hexicorridor, beyond Dunhuang,stretching into Gaochang (Turfan).In this area resided diversepeoples, including Han, the TurkicXiongnu and Xianbei, Jie (whowere perhaps Indoscythians), Qingand Di, who were related toTibetans and Tanguts [Howard2000, p. 242]. As stations alongthe Silk Road, the Former Liangcities were places where differingcultures interacted.

There are fourteen votivepillars dating to the Liang periodwhich portray the synthesis of

Fig. 1. Votive pilla, Qocho Ruin E (MIKIII 6838). Museum für Indische Kunst,Staatliche Museen PreussischerKulturbesitz, Berlin. Photograph ©Daniel C. Waugh 2004.

8© 2005 Connie Chin

Daoism, Confucianism, andBuddhism that developed in thethird century. For example, oneartifact [analogous to that in Fig.1 (p. 8) but not shown here], wasdonated by a patron named GaoShanmu and dated 428 CE. It hasseveral sections, with a bottomfrieze showing four males and fourfemales; incised above each is atrigram from the Yijing, aConfucian text. The writing abovethat is an early Buddhist text, theEkottaragma sutra. Above that isa band of Buddhas, and it is toppedby the constellation of the Dipper(a Daoist symbol) on its roundedsummit [Howard 2000, p. 255;Juliano and Lerner 2001, pp. 152-155].

This cultural melding isreflected in some of the earliestcaves. Wenshushan [Fig. 2] inHexi and later, Cave 285 atDunhuang, include cells on thesides, which were likely used asmeditation enclosures similar tothe Indian site at Ajanta. SyncreticDaoist, Indian, and Buddhistthemes crowd Western Wei Cave285, which is dated 538 and 539CE. On the ceiling, a central jewelis flanked by serpentine beings,one holding a builder’s square(Fuxi) and the other a compass(Nuwa), early Chinese deities [Fig.3]. Thunder gods, birds andphoenixes, some with Daoistimmortals riding them, sweepacross the ceiling. Indian deities,

including Siva, Vishnu and Ganesa,flank the main Buddha niche on thewest wall. The dated inscriptionson the wall are flanked on the rightby male donors in Tuoba Xianbei-style clothing, and on the left, bywomen in long, striped skirts, withlarger figures of monks [Whitfield1995, p. 42].

As time went on, Buddhismbecame more and more integratedinto Chinese society. Althoughthere was a brief period ofpersecution, in the Northern Wei

dynasty, the Xianbei rulers usedBuddhism to lend themselveslegitimacy. Buddhist institutions,in turn, garnered political andeconomic support from theNorthern Wei emperors. MuchBuddhist building activity tookplace. The Northern Wei emperorshonored Buddhist teachers as theytried to control them. EmperorDao Wu appointed Faguo as Headof Monks, and Faguo responded bycalling the emperor the modern-day Buddha. The rulers and themonasteries generally lived inharmony because the Buddhistssubmitted to the government. Asthe years passed, the number ofmonks and monasteries began toincrease, and the Wei rulers foundit difficult to rein them in. In theearly 460s a monk from Liangzhounamed Tan Yao became Head ofMonks. He began the excavationof the earliest caves at Yungang,and had five gigantic statues ofBuddha carved out of the cliff,thought now to represent the fiveemperors of the Northern Wei asincarnations of the Buddha. Herequested permission from the Weiemperor to take war captives fromShandong as tenants for Buddhistmonasteries, and called themFig. 2. Wenshushan. Photograph © Daniel C. Waugh 1998.

Fig. 3. East slope of ceiling of Mogao Cave 285, photographed in 1908 byCharles Nouette. Source: Mission Pelliot en Asie Centrale. Les Grottes deTouen-Houang (Paris: Geuthner, 1914; facsimile ed. 1997).

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“sangha households.” Each ofthese households paid “sanghagrain” to the local office of monks.Tan Yao also asked to convert somecriminals and slaves to “Buddhahouseholds,” whose memberscleaned or cultivated land for themonasteries [Wei Shou, tr. Hurvitz1956, p. 73].

Emperors and empress-dowagers patronized Buddhism bybuilding monasteries andconducting ceremonies. The firstmonastery built by the NorthernWei rulers was the Yungningsi inPingcheng in 476 CE, a landmarkof the capital city with its seven-story stupa. Princes of the royalfamily contributed the largestamount of money for monasteryconstruction. In the Northern Weicapital of Luoyang, someresidences were changedposthumously into monasteries.The many royal widows andconcubines were sequestered innunneries when the princes orrulers died, a frequent occurrencedue to the constant warfare of thetime. Government ministers,eunuchs, and even the imperialguards built monasteries. Of sixmonasteries built by eunuchs inLuoyang, five were nunneries[Yang, tr. Jenner 1981, p. 231].

The adoption of Buddhism inChina opened up new roles forwomen. Traditionally confined tothe roles of daughter, wife, mother,and mother-in-law, women wereoffered in Buddhist institutionsnew alternatives outside familylife. In Buddhist nunneries womencould be educated to read and copysutras, to manage businesses andkeep accounts, as well as fulfilltheir primary duty of worship andmeditation. As Yang Hsuan-chihdescribes the Hu-tung Nunnery(Nunnery of the Chief of TuobaMonks) founded by the aunt of theNorthern Wei empress dowagerWenming, “The nuns here wereamong the most renowned andaccomplished in the imperial city,skillful at preaching and discussingBuddhist principles. They oftencame to the palace to lecture onDharma for the empress dowager,

whose patronage of Buddhists andlaymen was without equal” [Yang,tr. Wang 1984, p. 56].

The de facto ruler of theNorthern Wei dynasty at the timeBuddhism became a state religionwas Empress Dowager Wenming,who was Chinese. EmpressDowager Wenming was the drivingforce behind the imperial chapelsat Yungang. A later EmpressDowager, Lady Ling, was a centralfigure in Northern Wei courtpolitics, from making policies toappointing officials. She also wasa lavish benefactor of Buddhismbefore a coup resulted in her beingthrown into the Yellow River anddrowned. Of course, the greatestwoman ruler in China was EmpressWu Zetian. During her rule in theTang dynasty, the largest Buddhastatue in Dunhuang, which facesthe visitor upon approaching theMogao caves, was constructed[Fig. 4]. This 99-foot high imageof the future Buddha Maitreya

reveals a woman’s bodily form andclothing [Fig. 5; Ning 2004, p.115]. Ning Qiang has arguedthat Cave 96, containing thehuge sculpture, is a localconfirmation about thelegitimacy of the rule of WuZitian and an example of howsocial and political issues wereaddressed through religious art.

Basing their activities on theIndian models of the Kushanstate, the monks of theNorthern Wei dynasty spenttheir time encouragingdonations and conductingrituals. Faxian and other Chinese

pilgrims witnessed Buddhistceremonies in India, visitedmonumental buildings dating backto the Kushan king Kanishka, andcarried Buddhist writings back toChina. The information theybrought back encouraged ChineseBuddhists to finance rituals, cavetemples, and statues.

The Buddhist monasterieslaunched a large-scale votarymovement. The Northern Weidonors expected to receivebenefits for their future lives andfor their deceased relatives inreturn for their donations. One ofthe favorite subjects of murals wasthe Tushita heaven, or the WesternLand of Bliss of Amitabha, themesthat are common subjects in caveart of the time. From a study ofdated inscriptions of the Northerndynasties, we find the mostcommon expected beneficiarieswere the donor’s direct relatives,especially parents. The secondgroup of primary beneficiaries wasemperors, and other statues werededicated to empress-dowagers,court officials, local administrators,religious teachers, and layassociations. While the royal familyand ministers and officialspatronized the large-scaleconstruction, in one study itappears that common peopledonated 48% of the statues,followed by monks and nuns(19.7%) and donors’ collectives(18.9%) [Sato Chisui, “Study ofVotive Inscriptions on BuddhistStatues in the Northern Dynasties,”cited in Liu 1988, p. 163].TheBuddhist associations were

Fig.4. Head of the Maitreya Buddhaof Mogao Cave 96. Photograph ©Tese Neighbor.

Fig. 5. The Maitreya Buddha of MogaoCave 96, from below. Photograph © TeseNeighbor.

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organized to collect donations.Some associations had strongfamily and territorial ties, whilesome appeared to be urban-basedgroups, but they seem to haveincorporated several social stratain their ranks.

Buddhist institutions played arole in social activities, such asfestivals, and were widelysupported by the society. Adescription of a Buddha’s Birthdaycelebration in Northern Wei depictsa thousand images from variousmonasteries paraded through thestreets of Luoyang, attracting largecrowds as they competed insplendor with each other [Yang, tr.Wang 1984, p. 46]. The goldencarriage of Jingxing nunnery wascovered by a canopy hung withgolden bells and beads of theseven treasures, so valuable thatthe imperial guards were calledupon to carry it. As the parade ofimages stopped at the gate of thepalace, the emperor bestowedflowers upon them. Acrobats anddancers accompanied the images,as the people emptied out themarketplaces in order to see theparade.

Monasteries had received landfrom donors as early as 420 CE,when an official named Fan Tai builtthe Qihuan Monastery and donatedsixty mou (about .14 acre) of fruitand bamboo groves for its upkeep[Gaosengzhuan 7, T 50.368c, inCh’en 1973, p. 126]. The SuiEmperor Wen donated 100 qing(one qing equals 100 mou, orabout 14 acres) of land to theShaolin Monastery at the foot ofsacred Mt. Song [Chin-shih ts’ui-pien, 77.16b, in Ch’en 1973, p.126]. The monks themselves wereforbidden to till the land [Pai-changch’ing-kuei, Record Sayings, inCh’en 1973, p. 148].1 The BuddhistVinaya, Rules of Discipline,prohibits farming by monks, on thegrounds that farming harms livingthings in the earth, and evenwatering plants harms lifecontained in the water. This meantthat in most cases cultivation wasdone by tenant farmers or templeslaves, sometimes called qing ren,

or “pure people” because theyspared the monks the impure tasksof farming, handling gold andsilver, and trading in goods.

In the early part of theNorthern Wei dynasty, the localmonasteries at Dunhuang musthave been modest and ratherinconspicuous [Soper 1958, p.157]. Dunhuang was not yet agreat pilgrimage center, and themonks must have toiled away attheir tasks in relative isolation, afew miles south of the great east-west trade route of the Silk Road.However, by the mid-Tang dynasty,as elsewhere in China whereBuddhist institutions controlled somuch land that they were regularlyattacked in memorials to thethrone as parasites on society, theDunhuang monasteries hadbecome an important part of thelocal economy, owning land,lending money, and operating grainmills and oil presses.

Documents from the famousLibrary Cave of Dunhuang, carriedoff by Marc Aurel Stein and PaulPelliot to Europe, demonstrate therole that Buddhist institutionsplayed in the Dunhuang economy.For example, there is evidence thatmonks and nuns owned andbought property, including slaves.A contract from the Library Cave[Pelliot 1297, in Wang 1983, p. 59,tr. Ernest and Connie Chin] reads,

Year of the sheep, spring,Shang Liesang and Shang[il legible] at GeneralHeadquarters. Bhiksu (monk)Zhang Benjia from Caiduotribe… purchased a horse. It isa young horse, with a whiteforelock and color pattern likeleaves and spots on a domino.Should any dispute regardingthe horse arise, Jiazala Zan willbe the responsible party. Inorder to forestall disagree-ments we make this contract.If the horse’s body has nodisfigurement or damage, it willbe immediately handed over tothe monk Zhang Benjia. If thehorse changes hair color orpattern in the summer, one of

the witnesses will immediatelybe found to modify the contract.This transaction is acknowl-edged by both parties. Silver ofrecognized purity, five ounces,is to be paid to the seller. Incase Zan is dispatched on stateduties or is not at home, awitness can act on his behalf.The old contract will be kept byMonk Benjia.

Witnesses from Jiaza tribeMazhu (owner of thehorse)thumb printYing nuo ren (purchaser)thumb printYadengsu Zanofficial sealA legal dispute about a young

slave named Li Yang Bei showedthat he was also purchased for fiveounces of silver [Pelliot 1081, inWang 1983, p. 48]. While lengthsof cloth, grain, and oil were thecurrency used for lesser purchases,apparently horses and people werebought with silver.

Another legal documentdepicts a lawsuit against a nun, inwhich intergenerational tensionsare revealed as much as a propertyrights dispute [Pelliot 1080, inWang 1983, p. 48, tr. Ernest andConnie Chin]:

The case of nun’s adopteddaughter“In the past, in the Year of theRabbit, near two tribes,Yufanbo and Tuihun, manypeople suffered from cold andhunger, waiting to die. When itwas snowing in the city ofShazhou, a poor personcarrying a bundled up one yearold baby came to my door andsaid, ‘The baby’s mother hasdied and I have no strength toraise her. She will die in a fewmore days. You can take her asyour adopted daughter or takeher as a female slave, either isall right.’ Out of pity I adoptedher. Like a twinkling of an eye,twenty years have passed. Thegirl is now twenty-one. Now,because of [?], the Kung family

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has instigated the girl ’schanging her mind and she hasthreatened me, saying, ‘Mymaternal uncle is Ni Baitso.’ Awoman came from the TongjiaYamen [office concerned withmatters between Han and tribalpeoples], and the girl claimedit was her mother. They talkedlike people insane. The girl alsowas not keen on working ashard as before. Because of thisI appeal to you to renderjudgment that the girl belongsto me as designated by theagreement. No one will be ableto ask for her, and no oneshould do harm. I earnestly askyou to issue an order with theofficial seal.”Instruction: “According to theadoption agreement, she is notfree to select a master. Shemust follow the originalagreement.”

Because of the availability ofscribes and the moral authoritylent to contracts signed there,temples in the ancient world werea main site for writing contracts,exchanging money, and lendingmoney. This was true in Greektemples, the temple in Jerusalem,and in Buddhist monasteries. TheMahasanghikavinaya sutra justifiesthis kind of commercial activity,saying that if goods donated to thesangha were not consumed by themonks and nuns, the surplus couldbe sold or loaned out to earn aprofit, to be used to support thesangha and Buddhist facilities.

This was the scriptural basis ofthe wu-jin-tsang, or “InexhaustibleTreasury,” a kind of Buddhistsavings bank of donations by thefaithful which became a flourishingcommercial institution in the Tangdynasty. The revenues of theInexhaustible Treasury were usedto repair Buddhist temples andmonasteries, to relieve thesufferings of the poor, and forofferings to the Buddha [Taipingkuang-chi, 493.4047 (Peking1959), in Ch’en, 1973, p. 163].

Many documents from theLibrary Cave at Dunhuang givedetails about commercial

transactions at the monasteries.Examples are a contract for theloan of beans, with an interest rateof 50%, and a contract for a loanof silk, with a default penalty,which was double the amountborrowed [Stein 1475 and Pelliot3004 and 3472, cited in Ch’en1973, pp. 165-167]. Perhaps, asin central China, the Dunhuangmonasteries served aspawnbrokers, or repositorieswhere local patrons could keeptheir wealth. One document fromthe British Library DunhuangArchives website is an inventoryof cloth and grain, perhaps ofdonations. Part of it says [Fig. 6;IDP, BL Or. 8210/S.5691/R.1, tr.Ernest and Connie Chin]:

Zhang Yangdepresentsdiagonal weave coarse woolcloth, 2 zhang 2 chiZhang Andetotal presentsdiagonal weave coarse woolcloth, 2 zhang 5 chidiagonal weave coarse woolcloth, 1 zhang 2 chi

Monk Dingxing total presentsGaocheng coarse wool, 2zhang 7 chi.2

Early industrial projects werecarried out either by rich andpowerful families or by monas-teries, which had access to thelarge amounts of capital whichwere required. One of the mostprofitable and widespreadenterprises was the water-powered mill, or nien wei, whichground grain to produce flour.

Several Dunhuang documentsare accountants’ reports on incomederived from mills owned by localmonasteries.3 For a ten-yearperiod between 924 and 945 CE,Pelliot manuscripts 2032, 2040,2049 and 3234 show rent earnedby Qingtu Monastery from itsmilling installations yielded morethan 60 shih of flour annually[Gernet 1995, p.146].4 In addition,it received 18 shih of bran used asfeed for horses and 5-18 shih ofcoarse flour (tsu mien) that thegauze sieves had not allowed topass, which was used to feed thefemale workforce at the monastery[Gernet 1995, p. 355].5 Gernetestimates that half of this amountwould have provided the needs ofthe religious community at Qingtuwith its population of fifty toseventy monks at that time.

The flour was also used as amedium of exchange and sold tothe laity. The monasteries had to

Fig. 6. Account Note, BL Or. 8210/S.5691/R.1. Photograph © The BritishLibrary, used with permission. All rights reserved.

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pay artisans, hold banquets forofficials and lay associations, andprovide for monks travelingthrough the region. There weremany feast days on the Buddhistcalendar, which involved not atrivial amount of expense.

The mills were owned by themonasteries, but maintained byprofessional millwrights. Ban-quets, to which the millwrightswere invited, celebrated the endof repair work and opening of thesluice gates. A document fromAnguo nunnery shows the accountsof the abbess for the year 886,including expenditures of .3 shihof millet, .5 sheng of oil, and .1shih of wheat for a banquet on theoccasion of the opening of thesluice gates [Pelliot 3107, inGernet 1995, p.147].

Oil presses at Dunhuang wereanother source of income for thereligious communities. Oil was oneof the most precious commodities,

much in demand for lamps burningin the Buddha Hall, illuminationsthat frequently took place at themonasteries, and for cooking. Inaddition, oil served as currency.According to documents fromDunhuang, one Chinese liter of oilwas worth 30 chi (feet) of cloth. Afoot of cloth was worth six liters ofcereals, so the value of a liter ofoil was approximately 180 liters ofmillet or wheat [Gernet 1995, p.355]. The oil presses wereoperated by specialized house-holds, which paid the monasteriesrent spelled out in contracts [Pelliot2032, 2040, 2049, 3234, in Gernet1995, p. 355]. An example ofexpenditures denominated in oilcomes from Pelliot 3234: .0015shih for a quilted gown and a meal;.05 shih of oil for the sculptor-artisan Ling Hu and workers whocoated the walls [Gernet 1995, p.151].

Cave 317 at Dunhuang (MiddleTang, 825-830 CE)has a lovely wallmural showing thesecommodities as usedin daily life in thecourtyard of am o n a s t e r y[Whitfield 1995: Vol.1, p. 214]. At theback of the court-yard is a Buddhafigure with bodhi-sattvas on eitherside. Two monks sitin the corners, onereading from asutra. In the middleof the courtyard along silk banner fliesfrom a pole, and amonk standsbeneath the bannerreaching up to placean oil lamp on a five-wheeled candelabra,preparing for anillumination. A hugeamount of food,including noodlesand flat cakes, ispiled on a large tableto one side,attended by laymen

carrying bowls. The people in themural are probably preparing fora vegetarian feast, one of theactivities sponsored several timesa month by lay organizations.

The Buddhist lay associationswere attached to monasteries andassisted in various programs tospread the religion among thepopulace. They helped organizeand fund the numerous festivals,often centered around popularsutra lectures by eloquent monks.The Dunhuang manuscripts arereplete with papers and fragmentswhich contain information on thelay societies and their activities. Awhole category of manuscripts onthe British Museum’s DunhuangArchives website is devoted to thistype of material, which they label“club circulars.” A typical one reads[Fig. 7; IDP, BL Or. 8210/S.6066/R.1, tr. Ernest and Connie Chin]:

You gentlemen are invited onthe 24th of this month in theearly morning (6-8 AM) to meetat the door of Yaming Templeto present contributions. Iflate, the fine will be one beakerof wine. If no show, the finewill be one half container ofwine. This notice must bepassed on quickly with theaccompanying document. Iflate, you will be fined.Ren Zhen Year, 4th month, 23rddayClerk KungNotice copied to 13 nameslisted.

Another such notice was sentto the membership of a layassociation on the occasion ofBuddha’s Birthday [IDP, BLOr.8210/S.5813/R.1, tr. Ernest andConnie Chin]:

CircularSecond month. Buddha’sBirthday Celebration.From officer in charge of theassociation, Kung Zi Sheng:On the 20th day of this monthbefore evening, deliver one douand five sheng of wheat andtwo sheng of millet. This noticemust be immediately circulatedFig. 7. “Club circular,” BL Or.8210/S.6066/R.1.Photograph © The British Library, used with

permission. All rights reserved.

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and must not stop or you willbe fined.

SignedShe Guan (officer ofassociation), SongShe Zhang (officer ofassociation), Zhang.

Both Song and Zhang have ini-tialed it with the word zhi“acknowledged.”

Most lay supporters, of course,were ordinary people. Onedocument in the British Librarydescribes a society of fifteenBuddhist women founded by a nunfor the promotion of friendshipamong women [Stein 527, in Ch’en1973, p. 288]. Dated 959, thedocument opens with a statementthat

our parents give birth to thisbody but friends increase itsvalue; in times of danger wesupport each other; in times ofmisfortune we rescue eachother. In dealing with friends,our words are to be trust-worthy. Older members are toact as older sisters; young onesas younger sisters, payingdeference to the older ones.The regulations are establishedwith the mountains and riversas witnesses.

On feast days, members wererequired to contribute oil, wine,and flour.

In the first moon the societydevotes a day for ensuringhappiness. On this day, eachmember is bound to give abundle of millet and to fill anoil lamp. The group thenproceeds to produce stupas bymolding and to place images ofBuddha on the sand in orderboth to render a great homageto the ruler and to accumulateblessings for parents [HouChing-lang, 1984, p. 46, inWhitfield 1995, p. 282].

The document adds that, havingjoined the group, a member wouldbe bambooed three times if shewished to leave, and forced to givea feast for the others.

Indeed, it is striking how manywomen donors appear in wallmurals in the caves. Often thereare as many women donorsdepicted as there are men.Women appear in nomad dress inthe earlier caves, and in Chinesedress in some later caves. They areboth lay and monastic, wealthyand ordinary people.

The Buddhist peoples of InnerAsia and China, like the Greeks andRomans, early Christians and manyothers, apparently also felt theneed for a female deity or deities.The most important feminine icon,the boddhisattva Avalokitesvara,or Guanyin, was transformed froma male to a female on the long tripalong the Silk Road and over thecenturies. Two Tang Caves atDunhuang, 45 and 194, show theBoddhisattva’s different genders.In Cave 45 [Fig. 8, p. 15]Avalokitesvara is male, protectinga merchant caravan “carryingvaluable treasures by a precipitousroad in an infinity of lands full ofbandits” [Cartouche quoting theLotus Sutra in the wall painting inCave 45, tr. Whitfield 1995: Vol.II, p. 316]. In Cave 194 Avalo-kitesvara is depicted as theepitome of plump female beauty,arrayed in the most elegant of HighTang feminine apparel, with onlya faint green moustache showingthe transition from the othergender. Thus the bodhisattva ofmercy not only appealed towomen, but became a woman.

This is just one of manyaspects of a changing societydepicted in the thousand-yearhistory of Buddhist grottoes alongthe Silk Road. In the material fromDunhuang we can trace thesymbiotic development of theBuddhist religion and economicand political changes that occurredalong the nearby trade routes overthe centuries. Buddhist teachingsaffected what was carried alongthe Silk Road. These trade goodsinclude precious stones and silkbanners used in worship, andminerals used in Buddhist art.Rulers used Buddhist tenets toacquire legitimacy for themselves,

and Buddhist institutions flourishedunder their patronage, becomingan integral part of society andeconomy. People from all walks oflife were involved in Buddhistinstitutions, participating in rituals,donating goods and time, andenjoying feast days. Many womentook part, and developed in rolesoutside the family as Buddhistinstitutions granted new spaces forthem in society. Acts of Buddhistdevotion, patronage, and politicscaused works of great art to becreated and sustained, finally to beleft buried in desert sand, apanoramic fusion of the cultures ofmany peoples who lived andtraveled along the Silk Road.

About the Author

Connie Chin works at the Centerfor East Asian Studies at StanfordUniversity. A graduate of OberlinCollege, she studied Chinese atChinese University of Hong Kongwhile writing for the South ChinaMorning Post. She also taughtEnglish at Tunghai University inTaiwan, where she began to studyclassical Chinese. She is intriguedby Silk Road cultures and loves toread early Chinese history. E-mail:.

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Ch’en 1973Kenneth K.S. Ch’en. The ChineseTransformation of Buddhism.Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1973.

Gernet 1995Jacques Gernet. Buddhism inChinese Society: An EconomicHistory from the Fifth to the TenthCenturies. Tr. Franciscus Verellen.New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 1995.

Howard 2000Angela Howard. “Liang Patronageof Buddhist Art in the GansuCorridor.” In Wu Hung, ed.Between Han and Tang: ReligiousArt and Archaeology in aTransformative Period. Beijing:

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Cultural Relics Publishing House,2000, pp. 239-242.

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Liu 1988Xinru Liu. Ancient India andAncient China: Trade and ReligiousExchanges A.D. 1-600. Delhi:Oxford University Press, 1988.

Ning 2004Qiang Ning. Art, Religion, andPolitics in Medieval China.Honolulu: University of Hawai’iPress, 2004.

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Wang 1983Wang Yaoqian. Dunhuang TufanWenxian Xuan Chengdu: Sichuan MinzuPublishing House, 1983.

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Wei Shou. 506-572. Treatise onBuddhism and Taoism. Englishtranslation by Leon Hurvitz,Appendix II to an Englishtranslation of the original Chinesetext of Wei Shu CXIV and theJapanese annotation of TsukamotoZenryu (repr. from Yun-Kang, TheBuddhist Cave Temples of the FiftyCentury A.D. in North China, vol.xvi, supplement). Kyoto, 1956.

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Roderick Whitfield and SeigoOtsuka. Caves of the SingingSands: Dunhuang: Buddhist Artfrom the Silk Road. 2 vols.London: Textile and ArtPublications, 1995.

Yang, trans. Jenner 1981W.F.J. Jenner, trans. Memories ofLoyang: Yang Hsuan-chih and theLost Capital (493-534). Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1981.

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Yang, trans. Wang 1984Yang Hsuan-chih. 547. Translatedby Wang, Yi-t’ung. A Record ofBuddhist Monasteries in Lo-Yang.Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1984.

Notes1. An exception to this was theChan school, whose leader, HuaiHai, had a slogan, “One day nowork, one day no food.”

2. One chi is about 30 cm. Onezhang is 10 chi, or 3 meters.

3. Such reports were presented atthe end of each year to theassembly of monks at the relevantmonastery. The famous Japanesepilgrim monk Ennin described sucha session at the ZushengMonastery in Chang-an in 840.

4. A shih (or dan) is about a bushel,the amount a person could carryon his back.

5. Pell iot 2049 contains theamount of tsu mien in the year 930which was expended on womenwho were employed to sewcanopies and make a bonnet forthe head of a bodhisattva in QingtuMonastery.

Fig. 8. Avalokitesvara with scenes of the bodhisattva’s miraculous intervention, illustrating the LotusSutra. Dunhuang Mogao Cave 45, photographed in 1908 by Charles Nouette. Source: Mission Pellioten Asie Centrale. Les Grottes de Touen-Houang (Paris: Geuthner, 1914; facsimile ed. 1997).