Buddhism and Music

Early on, Theravada Buddhists had a very negative view of music. They actually thought of music as a sort of sexual luxury. One of the Ten Precepts in order for becoming a monk, “requires that the monks avoid dancing, singing, music, and entertainments, and to abstain from wearing garlands, perfume, or cosmetics.” Therefore, they believed that music should be taken with much caution for they feared that the focus of the music would be on the quality of the voice of the singer and not the teachings themselves.

However, just as the religions and many other items spread along the Silk Road, music began to spread too and be incorporated into more and more rituals and chants. A Buddhist text called the Amitabha Sutra, describes how heavenly singing and chanting  can be heard all around us through nature and the animals that inhabit the world we live in. These sounds are all played in harmony to guide people to enlightenment.

On Mike Walker’s Silk Road Religion blog he talks a lot about music on the Silk Road. He points out how songs were used as ways to help remember the religious texts as well as used in meditation. Buddhist also utilizes this technique to teach as well as to ward off evil spirits. He also discusses how the music of Shamanism is very similar to sounds heard in nature and I imagine that Buddhist and Shamanistic music are very similar because of how the songs and chants are used in rituals and meditation in order to achieve a spiritual state.

 

Sources:

Buddhist Sacred Music

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~john-powell/Buddhist_Music/

 

A Deeper Look Inside the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas

Qianfodong, or the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, is a cliff located in the desert just ten miles out from one the large oasis towns along the Silk Road called Dunhuang. The caves began one night in 366 AD when a wondering monk named Yuezan became inspired by images of a thousand Buddhas in a cliff and dug out a small meditation cell no larger than a coffin. Others quickly followed suit and these small caverns were used as places for prayer and meditation for those taking the treacherous journey across the Taklimakan Desert. Soon larger caves were being carved out for public devotions and these shrines were soon filled with images of the Buddha and other adornments. These early caves inspired the name the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. These caves are a beautiful example of the evolution of Chinese art and the integration of Buddhism into Chinese culture.

As time went on, monks who lived in smaller caves to the right of the cliff, began to fill the Mogao caves with sculptures, paintings, banners, and sutras. These paintings and statues consisted of delicately created apsaras (heavenly nymphs), celestial musicians, depictions of nirvana, and Thousands of Buddhas depicted in large statues as well as filled in a thousand times in any unused space of the cave walls. Among these religious depictions “were earthier details familiar to any Silk Road traveler: Central Asian merchants with long noses and floppy hats, wizened Indian monks in white robes, Chinese peasants working the land” (Larmer). Due to being buried in desert sand, these caves have stood the test of time with their thin layers of paint escaping the dangers of war and pillage, nature and neglect.

Amidst all the wonders of the many caverns, one very specific cave, number 17, held hidden treasures for hundreds of years. A secret door was concealed by a statue of Hong Bian, a prominent ninth century monk (shown below). This hidden cave was finally opened up in 1900 by Wang Yuanlu, the caves self-appointed guardian, who discovered thousands of Buddhist texts and paintings crammed into this small room from floor to ceiling. He tried to give some texts to local officials in order to try to receive a donation but was only ordered to seal up the cave once again. It was not until a Hungarian born scholar, Aurel Stein, arrived that the real contents of this cave would be revealed. There were Manichaeism, Nestorian,  Jewish, Taoist, Confucian and secular texts relating to the economy, social structure, and history of the time. These texts also came in many different languages including Chinese, Sanskrit, Uighur, Tibetan, Khotanese, Kuchean, Sogdian, and Hebrew. This carefully constructed cave was clearly a planned operation and not rushed in a time of invasion. Studies suggest this cave was walled up sometime before Tanguts invasion when they established the Xixia kingdom in 1038. The reasons for enclosing this cave could have been for fear of military action as well as a need to store and preserve these worn scrolls. Interestingly, the figure of Hong Bian guarding this entrance was actually originally installed in a cave higher up soon after his death in the mid-ninth century. Read more about this discovery on my friend Kayla’s Explore Religion Blog.

 

Sources:

Larmer, Brook. “Caves of Faith.” National Geographic June 2010: Vol. 217, Issue 6. Print.

Wood, Frances. The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 2002. Print.

 

Mogao Caves on the Silk Road

The Mogao Caves or Mogao Ku is one of five Buddhist cave temple complexes located along the Silk Road that collectively make up Dunhuang caves. The Dunhuang Caves are often called the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. Mogao Ku has the largest known collection of Buddhist art in China, including more than 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 2,000 painted statues, dated from the 4th through fourteenth centuries AD. When the caves first were being made, they were used mostly for meditation but as time went on the caves became a place to teach and convert others to Buddhism and offered an extensive library of parable and sutras.

Creating these beautiful caves did not come cheap and the sponsors of the excavation often had more personal motives in mind. For example, the largest statue, which is a 100-foot White Buddha, was sculpted in 695 for the Tang Dynasty Emperor Wu Zetian, the only female Emperor in Chinese history. The face of this Buddha was made in her image and was used as way to show her legitimacy as an Emperor by showing her dedication to the Buddha.

 

Sources:

http://imperialtours.net/attractions/mogao-cave-murals

http://archaeology.about.com/od/religionandmagic/fl/Mogao-Caves.htm

Buddha Art

Buddhism actually had a pretty strong impact on Central Asian Art. Some of the most precious and powerful Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and murals still exist along the Silk Road today. The image of the Buddha first began in the Gandharan culture when Buddhism reached Gandhara in the 3rd century BC. As Buddhism spread along the Silk Road, monasteries, stupas, and cave temples were built that housed some of the most astounding Buddhist architecture and paintings. These murals are beautiful and tell us a lot of historical information about these ancient people. Kings, queens, knights, ladies, monks and artists would donate to these temples and have themselves painted on the walls. These depictions showed what people looked like and wore in specific centuries. I find this fascinating as a costume designer because it can be really challenging to find genuine historically correct depictions of ancient clothing and these cave paintings are a great research tool.

 

 

Source:

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/buddhism.shtml