An examination of the farewell-retreat custom in the mural paintings of Dunhuang

Abstract

The transmission of Buddhism and Buddhist culture has greatly influenced the development of the Chinese culture. Along the Silk Road, numerous Buddhist cave temples were built, and one of the major Buddhist centers was Dunhuang in Hexi corridor of China. One large mural paintings on the north wall of Yulin cave 25 near Dunhuang is a depiction of Maitreya paradise. It is also one of the best Tang dynasty’s large mural paintings. Modern scholars declare that the mural is a jingbian transformation of the sūtra〝*Buddha Pronounces the Sūtra of Maitreya Bodhisattva’s Attainment of Buddhahood〞which was translated by Kumārajīva in the 5th century. According to the sūtra, it describes several auspicious features in the Maitreya paradise, one of them is a farewell custom of families sending elderly people to a mud hut in the forest for them to meditate for the rest of their lives. It is illustrated in one of the scenes in the mural painting of Yulin cave 25. This is a very unique farewell-retreat custom depicted in Dunhuang which is different from the traditional Chinese customs. On the basis of both literary sources and archaeological findings in India and China, and by comparing various images of Buddhist artifacts, this paper is to study this custom by attempting to answer the following questions: - What is the purpose of such seclusion towards the end of one’s life? - What do the elderly do in the hut during the seclusion? - Is there any possible Indian cultural influence? - Is such custom practiced in other regions in China or Japan? Through a study of the mural paintings this paper seeks to understand the transmission of the concept of life and death within Buddhist doctrines and cultures from India to China and Japan along the Silk Road.