The Wall Painting of “Siddhārtha Descending on the Elephant” in Kizil Cave 110 †

Abstract

The mural scene under discussion illustrates Bodhisatva Siddhārtha’s descent into Māyā’s womb, a scene that is also named Māyā’s Dream in art historical studies. Painted as the start of the Buddha’s life sequence in Kizil Cave 110, it is the sole extant case of this story motif in Kucha. Its significance rests on the fact that it bridges Indian and Chinese pictorial traditions in its representation of the miraculous conception of Buddha’s last life. This article analyses the mural’s narrative elements in terms of Indian archetypes, as well as local innovations. The portrayal of Siddhārtha entering the mother-to-be’s womb while riding an elephant is compared with its counterpart motif in Chinese Buddhist art from the mid 5th century. The approach will address the drastic textual and pictorial transformations between the Indian prototype, “Siddhārtha as the elephant”, and the Chinese version, “Siddhārtha on the elephant”, in the conception episode, which reflects the transmission of the Indian belief in embryogenesis and its adaption by non-Indian peoples in Central Asia and China. Reinvestigating this picture and several pertinent literary works, the article attempts to delineate one link in that transformation process.