Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.47

v1.c7.47

Indian Buddhist art entered China after the second period. The earliest art are the wall paintings of the dwellings in Kezi'er (Kizil) in the district of Baicheng in the Xinjiang area. Its paintings offer the life of the Buddha and Buddha's birth stories (*Jātakas*). This art is also shown in the Buddhist caves of Kumutula (Kumtura) and in the Buddhist caves of Senmusemu (Simsim) in the district of Kuqa. In the picture Temptation by Māra's Daughters of Kizil cave 76, in the centre there is an image of the emaciated body of Śākyamuni practising asceticism, very similar to Gandharan sculptures. Gupta art of the third period was even better transmitted to China, in the Mogao grottoes of Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang, in the rock caves of Bingling Temple in Yongjing, and in the rock caves of Maijishan in Tianshui. There are also the rock caves of Yulin in Anxi, the rock caves of Yungang in Datong, Shanxi and the caves of Longmen in Luoyang, Henan. In such places, its art is represented. It has influenced the artistic production of Chinese painting. The painting of the Buddha image in "Cao's Clothing coming out of the Water" of painter Cao Zhongda during the Northern Qi in China was probably inspired by Buddhist images of the Mathurā art style of the Guptas. The art of the fourth period is mainly manifested in the art of the *thangkas* of Tibetan Buddhism. In brief, the influence of Indian art on Chinese Buddhism is comprehensive. Chinese Buddhists took in the basics of Indian Buddhist art but in the end, they began to form their own artistic style of creating Buddhist images.