Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

P URE L AND A RT
source, so the self that has attained nirvana, vanishing
at death, cannot be said either to exist or not to exist.
See also: Anatman/A tman (No-Self/Self); Mainstream
Buddhist Schools
Bibliography
Priestley, Leonard C. D. C. Pudgalavada Buddhism: The Reality
of the Indeterminate Self. Toronto, ON: Centre for South
Asian Studies, University of Toronto, 1999.
Thien Chau, Thich. The Literature of the Personalists of Early
Buddhism, tr. Sara Boin-Webb. Delhi: Motilal Barnasidass,
1999.
PURE LAND ART
LEONARD C. D. C. PRIESTLEY
Visions of PURE LANDS are premised upon the Mahayana
COSMOLOGY of multiple worlds in “ten directions,”
each presided over by one buddha and each
constituting a blissful alternative to the Saha world of
impurity in which we live. The Western Land of Bliss
(Sukhavat) associated with AMITABHA Buddha epitomizes
the notion of the pure land. The term pure land
is thus used in a narrow sense to refer to Amitabha’s
Land and in a broader sense to refer to domains associated
with BUDDHAS of other directions. Visual representation
of pure lands, a major theme in the
Buddhist art of East Asia, takes three major forms: (1)
sculptural representations of Amitabha Buddha with
his retinue; (2) BIANXIANG (TRANSFORMATION
TABLEAUX) showing paradise scenes or pictures of the
descent of Amitabha to usher the deceased to the Land
of Bliss; and (3) landscape and architectural simulation
of the Western Paradise.
Western Pure Land evoked through the
Amita bha image
The Amitabha image, with its evocation of the Western
Pure Land, dates back to at least the fourth century
in China, culminating in its veneration by
HUIYUAN (334–416) and his followers on Mount Lu.
There was a remarkable lack of doctrinal coherence underlying
the early practice, which took its cues largely
from sutras tangential to Amitabha’s Pure Land. Chief
among them is the PRATYUTPANNASAMADHI-SU TRA,
which emphasizes the role of BUDDHA IMAGES, including
images of Amitabha, as an expedient agency for
achieving the state of contemplation, rather than as
cultic icons in their own right. In early cases involving
Amitabha images, stone chambers were chosen as the
topographic setting for such meditative activities, as a
means of “traveling,” in the words of a devotee named
Liu Yimin around 400 C.E., “to the most distant region
(of the Western Paradise) . . . to settle for the great repose
(of Nirvana) as the final term.”
Such pure land aspirations gained momentum during
the fifth and sixth centuries in China. However, the
majority of buddha icons made during this period
depicted Śakyamuni, MAITREYA, and the Śakyamuni/
Prabhutaratna pair. A new trend emerged in northern
China in the 460s: Of the variety of buddha images
made by lay commoners, about 17 percent were
Amitabha icons, which received little patronage from
monks and nuns. It was not until a century later that
the SAṄGHA’s interest in Amitabha icons overrode their
interest in icons of Śakyamuni and Maitreya. The
change suggests that the pure land cult associated with
Amitabha was a movement that began from the bottom
up. It largely tallied with the early indifference
shown by the learned Buddhist community during this
period toward Amitabha Pure Land sutras, as indicated
by the initial absence of scholarly commentary regarding
them. Early donors of Amitabha images were
unclear about the location of Amitabha’s Pure Land in
the Buddhist cosmological scheme. Amitabha images
were often integrated into the imagined afterlife encounter
with Maitreya, the future Buddha. In southern
China, Amitabha images were cast in gilded
bronze, with the largest statues reported to be sixteen
feet tall. In the north, stone was the favored medium.
Transformation tableaux of the Western
Pure Land
It is not clear when pure land pictures first appeared
in China. A mural in cave 169 at Binglingsi, executed
in 420, contains the earliest painted icon of Amitayus,
but shows no topographic features of the Western Paradise.
The earliest surviving example of a pure land
picture in China is a set of topographic tableaux carved
on the back of the nimbus of icons from the Wanfosi
at Chengdu. The oldest of these survives in an ink rubbing,
dated 425, with the pure land scene largely missing.
A sixth-century relief carving, similar in design,
on the back of double bodhisattvas from the same site,
preserves a complete composition. It is based on the
“Life Span” and “The Universal Gateway” chapters of
the LOTUS SU TRA (SADDHARMAPUN D ARIKA-SU TRA). In
the middle is the assembly gathered at the bird-shaped
Vulture Peak, where Śakyamuni announces that, at the
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