Download PDF | Lilla Russell-Smith - Uygur Patronage in Dunhuang_ Regional Art Centres on the Northern Silk Road in the Tenth Century (Brill's Inner Asian Library) -Brill Academ.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My interest in Dunhuang art started during my undergraduate years, and so it is my pleasant task to include here a long list of those who helped me along the way to the publication of this study. The last major exhibition of Dun huang art in the British Museum was in 1990-91. An undergraduate student of Chinese and art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and Mrican Studies (SOAS, University of London), I was then working at the British Museum as a student volunteer. It was a great privilege to see the paintings regularly and to study about them with Professor Roderick Whitfield (now Professor Emeritus, SOAS) in classes and seminars.
In 1992 I wrote my first extended essay on a Dunhuang topic on representations of the Vimalakirtinirdefa Sutra in Dunhuang (some short results of this initial research are included in this book). At SOAS I would like to thank most of all Professor Whitfield for his inspired lecturing and for reading so many of my essays, papers, articles, various versions of the thesis and the fmal version of this study. All his suggestions were very valuable. I arn grateful to all my teachers at SOAS, many of whom encouraged me with their advice and support over the years, especially Professor Geza Fehervari, Professor A.D.H. Bivar (Professors Emeritus), Dr. Tadeusz Skorupski (Reader, Department of the Study of Religions), Professor Tim Barrett (Department of the Study of Religions) and Dr. Youngsook Pak (Senior Lecturer, Department of Art & Archaeology). Philip Denwood (Reader, Department of Art & Archaeology) read part of this study and made important suggestions. I would also like to thank Miss Y. Yasumura for all her help in the library. Dr. Madhuvanti Ghose (now Temporary Lecturer at SOAS) often discussed Indian and Central Asian art with me during ouT PhD years, I would like to thank her for sharing her knowledge and for her friendship and support.
I would like to express my gratitude to everyone at the British Museum who helped me at various stages, especially Dr Anne Farrer (earlier Assistant Keeper at the Department of Oriental Antiquities, now Sotheby's Institute of Education), Carol Michaelson, Jane Portal (Assistant Keepers, Department of Asia), Mary Ginsberg and Dr. Cecilia Braghin for giving me access to the paintings in the Stein Collection whenever necessary. At the University of Budapest (ELTE) in Hungary, where I had studied Western art history, Dr. Ern() Marosi, Sandor T6th and Dr. Anna Eorsi taught me methods of researching early Christian art and iconography, some of which can be applied to the study of Buddhist art. Dr. Pal Miklos, now unfortunately deceased, had been my first teacher of Chinese art. He was one of very few Westerners to spend several weeks at the Dunhuang caves in the 1950s, fondly remembered by Duan Wenjie, the Director of the Dunbuang Academy during my first visit there in 1991. In China I wish to thank Professor Duan Wenjie, Professor FanJinshi, Ma De and Zhao Shengliang from the Dunhuang Academy, Ptofessor Rong Xinjiang (Beijing University) and Dr. Shang Gang for helping me either during their visits to London or my subsequent trips to China. Perhaps the most decisive moment in discovering the subject of this book was the "Serinde" exhibition, organised in 1995-1996 in Paris, demonstrating the extent of the cross-cultural contacts within the vast expanses of Central Asia.
In Paris, I would like to thank Jacques Gies (Chief Curator of Chinese Painting, Musee national des arts asiatiques-Guimet) and Monique Cohen ( Director of the Department of Manuscripts, Bibliotheque Nationale de France), the organisers of this exhibition. At the Musee national des arts asiat:iques - Guimet, special thanks are also due to Laure Feugere (chargee de mission au Musee Guimet, Curator) and Vera Linhartova (then Curator of Chinese Painting), who were most helpful and gave me ftill access to all paintings related Lo my studies at the time of my visits. The recent "The Silk Road, Trade, Travel, War and Faith" exhibition in the British Library was another milestone in making us aware of the cross-cultural influences on the Silk Road.
I wish to thank Dr. Susan Whitfield ( Director, International Dunhuang Project, British Library), curator of the exhibition, for all her .ideas and encouragement in the past ten years, for including my summa1y of the argument presented in this study in the exhibition catalogue, and for collaborating on several projects. Although by spring 1996 1 was convinced of the theory presented here: namely that Uygurs played a major role in shaping th.e late period of Dunhuang art, I soon discovered that very little had been published on the art and history of the Uygurs, and much of the historical background could only be found in Chinese and.Japanese books and articles.
At the time, apart from the best known pieces, the collection of the Museum fi.ir Indische Kunst (MIK) in Berlin remained unpublished. Subsequently the MIK closed for refurbishment, and the stil unpublished material became inaccessible. Now of course the situation is very clifferent: Chhaya Bhattacharya-Haesner's extensive catalogue is available and the museum has reopened with an airy and impressive display of o�jects and amazing facilities in the· storerooms. I am most grateful to Professor Marianne Y aldiz (Director of the Museum ftir Indische Kunst) Berlin, Germany) who gave me full access to the collection, and Dr. Chhaya Bhattacharya-Haesner (independent scholar, Berlin) for showing me all paintings and fragments on silk, ramie and cotton in the store rooms of the Museum fur lndische Kunst in 1996 and again in 2004. Special thanks are due to Dr. Zsuzsanna Gulacsi (Assistant Professor, Northern University of Arizona, USA), who has kept me informed of all her research results since 1997 and sent me several articles and her dissertation before publication.
ProfessorJorinde Ebert (Institute of Art History, University of Vienna, Austria) discussed with me aspects of her unpublished research material during her visit to London in March 2000, many thanks are due for her valuable suggestions. With regards to Tibetan art Dr. Amy Heller (CNRS) has sent me very important research ideas. This study spans over several scholarly fields, and I am most grateful to everybody who answered my questions regarding Uygur history, religion and language to which I was a newcomer. Special thanks are due to Professor Takao Moriyasu (Osaka University, Japan) and Professor Peter Zieme (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Germa11y). In 1998 Professor Moriyasu came to London and I am very grateful to him too for sharing many of his ideas which are now mostly published in English and German and are listed in the Bibliography but were then only available in Japanese. Professor Gyorgy Kara (EL TE, Budapest, Hungary and lndiana University, Bloomington, USA) gave me n1.an.y practical ideas in 1997 in Budapest and has been most kind in supplying his transcription and explanation of the inscriptions in Appendix l. In the United States I am very grateful to Professor Valerie Hansen (Yale University, New Haven) and to Professor Angela Howard (Rutgers University, New York) who have been very supportive of rny work.
Professor Nancy Steinhardt and Professor Victor Mair (University 0f Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) have also been most helpful on many occasions since 1989. Professor Marilyn Gridley (University ofKansas, Kansas City) senl very rnteresting articles about Tejaprabha. I met Professor Sarah Fraser (Associate Professor, Northwestern University, Evanston-Chicago) during her graduate years for the first time, and subsequently she discussed my project with me in London, Budapest and New Haven. Her suggestions were most helpful at various stages. During fieldtrips in IndiaJitendra Nath (then National Museum, New Delhi) allowed me to see important works of art despite his immineBt departure and Dr. Radha Banerjee (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts) was helpful in every possible way. In 2000-2003 I was also cataloguing Sir Aurel Stein's photographs as part of a British-Hungarian project. The life and achievements of Sir Aurel Stein, who had been brought up in the same district of Budapest where 1 spent my childhood, have long been an inspiration. Stein had left a large collection of his photographs to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) in Budapest: a favourite place of his from his student years.
I wish to thank all members of this British-Hungarian Stein project for all their ideas and support especially Helen Wang (Curator of East Asian Money, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum) andJ6hn Falconer (Curator ofPhotographs, British Library), ' Dr. Eva Apor (Director, Oriental Collection, Library of the HAS) and Agnes Kelecsenyi (Deputy Director, Oriental Collection, Library of the HAS). As recently more photographs have been discovered I look forward to a second phase starting in October 2004. Without my family's support this book would never have been written. The optimism of my husba-nd, William, proved invaluable and he also gave me essential support in all practical ways from computing to picture editing, many thanks for all of this. The birth of our two daughters in 1999 and 2002 slowed my work down of course: Alma Flora and her younger sister Isabella Viola have been part of this book writing process all their lives. Alma is now helping me with my slides, and enjoyed sketching Dunhuang paintings at the "Silk Road" exhibi- , tion in the British Library.
My parents Adam and Julia Bikfalvy, who first taught me the appreciation of act as classical musicians, came to London several times to look after their granddaughters, and cared for them in Budapest, despite their busy schedule, many thanks for their unfalterin� support and help. I would also like to thank SOAS for a Travel Grant and the Royal Asiatic Society for the Raymond Percheron Travel Award that made my field trips possible, and the Buddhist Society, who provided additional funding for my studies. I am very grateful to the British Academy for granting me a Studentship for three years. The Committee for CeAtral and Inner Asia of the British Academy made the publication of this book possible. In the preparation of this book I wish to thank Patricia Radder, and Boris van Gool, Assistant Editors at Brill, who answered all my queries so promptly and guided me through the production of this book, Hilary A. Smith who read this manuscript and made useful suggestions and Lindsay Zamponi for meticulous copy-editing. Naturally all remaining mistakes are mine. Started in 1999 by Professor Sarah Fraser, an important transformation in Dunhuang studies is taking place.
Many institutions listed on these pages are part of the digitisation projects that will for the first time make Dunhuang art accessible all over the world. The digital images supplied by them will be available on the Mellon International Dunhuang Archive (MID A). In recent years the collections of Uygur art have also been published and studies on Uygur history are also more widely accessible. I present my ideas here in the hope that they shed new light on the late phase of Dunhuang art, and invite readers to discuss my ideas. Only the collaboration of many scholars in different fields of expertise will bring us closer to understanding the complex nature of the regional cultures on the Silk Road.
Note on Spelling and Object Numbers
For Chinese words the pinyin system has been used throughout. For Sanskrit words diacritics have been added with the exception of words that have become part of the English language e.g. mandala, sutra. These words appear with diacritics when part of a title. 'Q: was used in preference to 'K' in Turkic names. Most of the Turkic names can be spe1t in different ways. Dunhuang paintings in the Stein Collection of the British Museum have registration numbers, of which only the last digits are different, indicating the Stein painting number. For example 1 91 9,0101, 0.31 refers to Stein painting 31 and 1 91 9,0101, 0.108 to Stein painting I 08.
Map
Map Mter "Map of the Eastern Silk Road" in Susan Whitfield (ed.): The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith, London: The British Library and Serindia Publications, 2004, pp. 10-1 1 and Takao Moriyasu: "Four Lectures at the College de France in May 2003", Osaka Universiry The 2 JS1 Century COE Program Inl£rjace Humanities Research Activities 2002-2003, vol. 3, World History Reconsidered through the Silk Road, Osaka University, 2003, Map 7: migration of the Uighurs in the 840s
INTRODUCTION
A medieval library containing tens of thousands of manuscripts and hundreds of paintings on silk and paper was discovered in a small cave: one of over 400 cave temples hewn out of the gravel cliffs and decorated with wall paintings over a period of a thousand years, near present-day Dunhuang tH�.1 The wealth of material and unparalleled continuity of production at the site (fourth to fourteenth centuries C.E.) makes it possible to study art practice and patronage in much greater detail than at other regional centres on the Silk Road.
Dun huang art of the tenth century has been considered to be overwhelmingly Chinese, but this study demonstrates the increasing importance of the Uygurs during this period. Through the careful comparative analysis of artworks, and the re-evaluation of historical sources, it becomes possible to identify the distinctive Uygur characteristics of several well-known Dunhuang paintings from this period. Ern6 Marosi has drawn attention to the importance of studying artworks as historical sources, and reconstructing the context of their creation. There is no history without. the linking of facts, and without presupposing the existence of a context. Modern historical and art-historical research started only when it became obvious that our associations are mostly arbitra1y: historical reconstruction is characterised by relativity to a great extent.2 Although Marosi is a researcher of medieval Christian art, this observation is equally important in the case of the religious art of the cultural centres of the Silk Road, which are often studied in isolation.
The comparative study of art\vorks frorn. different cultural centres often brings surprising results, helping the researcher to recognise previously overlooked details, and provides new clues for dating. This study investigates the processes that led to the distinct change in the style ofDunhuang art of the tenth century, and the consequent reduction of Chinese influence on Silk Road centres. It shall demonstrate that instead of looking to imperial China as during the unified Tang (618-907), in this period oflocal wars and peaceful competition for the control of trade, the mutually dependent ruling groups looked to each other for inspiration, and thereby changed the nature of Silk Road art. Furthermore, the new artistic and religious ideas that they developed were then passed on to central China, partly by the nonChinese Tangut and Liao dynasties and subsequently by the Mongols.
There they became part of both Chinese religious thinking and representational art forms. By the tenth century, the Mogao caves (Plate l) offered an important cultural and religious model to t:he neigh bow-ing Silk Road cenb·es. This has been referred to on several occasions. The influence of the Uygurs on some of the biggest cave temples is less well known, and has never been put into context. Upon entering Cave 98, one of the largest Mogao caves, built in 923-925 C.E., the visitor is immediately struck by the contrast between the densely decorated upper section of the side walls and the soberly presented lower section where donor portraits appear. In contrast with the multitude of small figures illustrating scenes from various sutras, the large, erect donor figures stand qujetly as if making a silent offering .. They are led by the governor of Dunhuang Cao Yijin tv�, who commissioned the caves, and behind him are represented his Uygur and Chinese wives and their attendants (Colour Plate L).
The significance of these figures cannot be doubted: their large size and elaborate clothing emphasise the important role rhey played. Cao Yijin who commissioned the cave was very consciously demonstrating the powerful political links in the area most important to Dunhuang: his son-in-law, the King of Khotan-the most important Buddhist centre on the southern Silk Road at the time, wears such an elaborate crown that his portrait cuts mto the plane of the Vinzalakirtinirdesa Sutra illustration directly above him. The presence of the female Uygur donor -figures in the tenth -century Dwiliuang caves has been acknowledged for a long time, and they have been illustrated and described in various Chinese and Western publications, but no one has investigated the significance of Uygur donors in the formation of tenth century Dunhuang art.
The present study has a two-fold purpose: first, to understand the backgronnd to the increasing imJ!>ortance ofUygur patrons in Dunhuang, and second, to understand in greater detail the way Dunhuang may have shaped Uygur art, a question that has only been discussed in general terms by other authors. By juxtaposing visual and historical clues this study investigates the important role Uygur patrons played in revitalising Dunhuang's art in the tenth-eleventh centuries. Recent historical research conducted in China andJa,pan has proved that the Uygurs played a far more important role in tenth and eleventh century Shazbou than previousLy assumed.3 Rong Xinjiang has devoted an entire chapter of his study of Dunhuang historical sources to the links between the Uygurs ofXizhou itS�'I'I and Ganzhou t�·1H (Map) and the Chinese of Dwiliuang in the ninth and tenth centuries. He points out that research on the relationship between Shazhou and the two Uygur states could only be attempted in recent years, once the relevant Dunhuang manuscripts had become available, because traditional historical sources did not address these issues.4
Only isolated attempts have so far been made to put the results of historical research into an art-historical context. At the "First International Conference in Dtmhuang" a number of caves in Yulin and Dunhuang that had earlier been regarded as Tangut were identified for the first time as Uygur by Liu Yuquan, but his results have not become widely known in the West, or even in China.5 The complexity of this issue is clearly shown by the fact that not all Chinese authors know or accept Liu's attributions, and that consequently some have continued to refer to these caves as Tangut. Since the publication of Liu's research, Chinese historians have simply quoted his results, and there has been no further attempt to study the growing influence of the Uygurs on Dunhuang art. Named Shazhou Uygur caves by Liu, they have all been dated to the eleventh century and consequently the Uygur role in the formation of Dunhuang art in the tenth century has not been investigated at all. The tenth and eleventh centuries constitute the late period in Dunhuang art, as the earliest wall paintings date to the fourth century C.E. There has been general agreement among Chinese and Western scholars that from the time of the Tibetan occupation (781- 847) Dunhuang was in decline in certain ways.0 With regard to the tenth-century portable paintings, it is clear that due to their later date, more have survived, and consequently more paintings that are very close to each other in composition are available for study. The standardisation and repetitiveness of the art of this period, especially in the tenth century, was also due to the sudden growth in the number of commissions.
Duan Wenjie, among others, has already drawn attention to the increased Buddhist activity in Dunhuang during the Cao family's rule (tenth and early eleventh centuries).? However, the study of the portable paintings from this late period has been somewhat neglected until recently. Members of the Dunhuang Academy have mostly researched the art of the wall paintings in the Dunhuang caves. Up to the present relatively few Chinese experts have had the opportunity to study the Dunhuang material in London and Paris in detail. At the same time it has been difficult for the European experts to gain access to the Dunhuang caves, and g0od quality publications have only begun to appear in the last twenty yeats.8 Therefore, at the time of preparing the European collections for publication, authors had to rely on the then-available material, which restricted the scope for comparative studies. Additionally very few comparative studies of regional art centres have appeared to date. Beyond a few general remarks and the citing of isolated examples for comparison, scholars have tended to focus on the study of one area. There are, however, important exceptions.
The " Serinde" exhibition, organised in 1 995-1 996 in Paris, covered a vast area of Cenlral Asia.9 It was the first important display to demonstrate how regional centres influenced each other, and how style and iconography travelled along the Silk Road. Among the exhibits shown was a sketch from Dunhuang described by Frantz Grenet in the catalogue as "divinites sogdiennes" or "Sogdian deities" (Plate 2).10 Two seated females are shown holding various attributes: the one on the left holds a foliated cup and a tray upon which sits a dog. The female on the right is seated on a wolf; she has four arms, the upper two supporting the sun and moon disks, and the lower two holding a scorpion and a snake. During a discussion at the conference linked to the exhibition, it was emphasised that, although this painting came from Dun huang, the iconography and the clothing of the figures were very unusual; it was compared to Sogdian art.11 However, no reference was made to the headdresses of the figures. The headdress shown here, a flat water-drop shape was worn by high-ranJ..-ing Uygur women (Figure 1) as the present author soon realised.12
The presence ofUygur headdresses in the Dunhuang material was the first clue to discovering similarities between Uygur art and certain Dunhuang paintings. The author's subsequent systematic search identified a group of Dunhuang paintings that display a concentrated amount of Uygur influence. The selected paintings had often been regarded as 'different' or unusual within the Dunhuang cmpus, but in most cases had not been associated with the Uygurs. The second stage was to collect the historical evidence to back up the hypothesis that these unusual features in the Dunhuang context were the result of Uygur patronage. Once historical sources had convinced me of the increasing Uygur influence in Dunhuang, the third stage was to conduct a meticulous step-by-step comparative study of each painting selected in the first stage. This new discovery has called into question the way we have been researching the later period of Dunhuang art. Until the fall of the Tang Dynasty, in 907, Dunhuang art was overwhelmingly influenced by central China. Despite the geographical distances, direct parallels with imperial art could be found.
During the ninth and tenth centuries, however, the situation changed dramatically. The great empires ofTibet, the Uygur Kaghanate and Tang China all collapsed within a few decades in the ninth century, and small, regional centres became independent. It was the interaction bel:\.veen these regional centres that from then onward defined the military, economic, social and cultural landscape up to the arrival of the Mongols in the thirteenth century. Because of the constant shifts of allegiance and influence among these regional centres, the study of this period is more problema6c than that of the preceding one. Researching this era is fascinating because at this time important iconographic and stylistic inventions initially originating in the art of non-Chinese peoples entered Chinese culture.
As the Liao � (907- 1 1 25), the Tanguts or Xi Xia illiJr ( l 036-1 226), the Jin � (11 15-1 234-) and the Yuan 5G (1 260-1 368) were dynasties of non-Chinese origin ruling China or important parts of it, many of their innovations were then taken up and passed into mainstream Chinese religious thought and art. The Uygurs remained the cultural advisors of the Mongols even after the latter established the Yuan dynasty. 13 Chinese intellectuals traditionally have had an extremely strong sense of their country's long history, the character of 'Chineseness' and the importance of the 'Central' as opposed to the borderlands up to the present day. As we all know today even the name of China is the 'Central country' Zhongguo 9::1 �. In contrast with this prevailing view, in the period under discussion the regional ideas often became the basis for shaping the thinking of the centre. Growing awareness of these issues has only just begun to fllter into general works on Chinese history. 14 Another important point to address is the nature of 'nations' and 'religions' in the context of the constantly shifting patterns of Chinese culture during the centuries. Medieval groups did not have the same idea of nationhood, and consequently national art styles, as were developed in the West, especially under the influence of d1e romantic movements of the nineteenth century. Consequently, it is not possible to fmd clearly distinguishable features of an 'Uygur style' that were consciously employed by the artists. As it is increasingly difficult in the contemporary world to distinguish the national characteristics of various art forms, due to "globalisation," in the tenth century on the Silk Road, too, there was a similar cosmopolitan atmosphere, in which cultaral and religious ideas travelled freely in the footsteps of economic growth and trade.
The northern trade route started from Dunhuang and proceeded to the oasis of Turfan. One branch then followed the southern foothills of the Tienshan mountains to Karasahr v and Sorcuk (near modern Korla) before reaching Kuca, an oasis surrounded by Buddhist cave complexes such as Qjzil and Kumtura. It is clear that along with the merchants and monks artists and artisans were also travelling, and paintings or sketches could also be taken from one regional cultural centre to the other. In these circumstances it is extremely difficult to understand exactly how the art of an individual region was formed. However, as will be demons�rated, workshop practices, local fashions and the patrons' demands made the development of regional styles inevitable. In the course of this research the importance of studying the art of the regional centres in a connected and comparative manner, rather than in isolation, became evident.
The Chinese ofDunhuang and the Uygurs ofTurfan were influenced by other ethnic groups too: Tibetans, Kucheans, Sogdians and Khotanese. A comparative, multi-cultural approach may fumisb answers in such difficult areas as dating and may also provide new clues to iconographic questions. Furthermore, by setting the material into a socio-historical framework, much more can be understood of the background in which these paintings were produced, and in turn the new perspective may reveal more of their original meaning. The paintings that form the basis of this study were discovered at some po1nt in 1 900 by the Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu, who acted as a caretaker at the Mogao caves.15 He stumbled upon the bundles of manuscript scrolls and paintings, which were stacked up to the ceiling in a side chapel of a larger cave temple, numbered Cave 16 today.
The side chapel, originally built in the mid-ninth centUty as a memorial to the high-ranking monk Hongbian �1!', is now known as Cave 17, or "The Library Cave." By 1900 Dunhuang had been a forgotten and largely abandoaed site for some centuries, although Buddhist activities continued on a reduced scale. Because Dunhuang was not well known then, Wang met with little success despite his attempts to draw his unique fmd to the attention of the authorities, who believed that it was expensive and too much trouble to move the large number of scrolls and other paintings and manuscripts to Lanzhou im1+1 or the capitaL Therefore, when the Hungarian-born British archaeologist, Aurel Stein arrived on the scene, Cave 17 was still almost untouched; a temporary wall blocking the entrance had even been built to protect the finds.16 In retrospect the Dunhuang manuscripts and paintings proved to be the most important finds of Stein's entire career. 17 First all paintings and documents were sent to London. 18
Subsequently, after a delay caused by the First World War, the material was divided between London and Indian museums. 19 Today the paintings form the most important part of the Stein Collection in the British Museum, and the Stein Collection in the National Museum, in New Delhi. rll10se in New Delhi are difficult to study and remain mostly unpublished.20 A preliminary study of Stein's published and unpublished photographs of the Delhi material has not so far revealed any striking resemblance to the group identified here.21 The British Mmseum's Stein collection was published by Roderick \1\'hitfield in three important volumes between 1 982 and 1 985.22 Just one year after Stein's visit in 1 908 the French scholar Paul Pelliot arrived in Dunhuang. He was a well-trained Sinologist and undertook a thorough study of the material on the spot before selecting .important paintings and manuscripts to take to Paris.23 He had the caves photographed and carefully noted the inscriptions. As some of these have become illegible subsequently, and because many others were not published elsewhere, his notebooks have become invaluable, and have been published in six volumes. 24
The paintings and sculptures he brought back form the basis of the collection at the Musee Guimet in Paris and were published in 1 995 in two volumes edited by Jacques Gies.25 Colours are of great importance when identifying the Uygur-influenced group, but previously only black-and-white illustrations of the paintings bad been available in the earlier catalogue by Nicole VandieF-Nicolas, which had made a comparative stylistic study difficult.
Towards a difinition of Uygur art
A detailed comparative history of Uygur art is still a distant prospect. This must incorporate the partially published banners, wall paintings, paper fragments, textiles and illuminated book illustrations found by archaeologists, as well as the wall paintings and architecture found in situ in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. In a future project it would also be desirable to investigate the relationship of the Uygur style of the Turfan area with the art of the previous nomadic period. For the present, in order to understand which techniques, materials, types of clothing, and stylistic features can be linked to the Uygurs it is necessary to give a working definition of what constitutes Uygur art, although the main focus of the present study remains on the connections between the Dunhuang and 'Iurfan areas. Uygur art as we know it, has been excavated and studied only since the beginning of the twentieth century. Four expeditions to the area ofTurfan were organised by the then Musewu fi.ir Volkerkunde (Ethnological Museum Berlin) between 1902 and 1914 . .27 The first
Towards a difinition of Uygur art A detailed comparative history of Uygur art is still a distant prospect. This must incorporate the partially published banners, wall paintings, paper fragments, textiles and illuminated book illustrations found by archaeologists, as well as the wall paintings and architecture found in situ in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. In a future project it would also be desirable to investigate the relationship of the Uygur style of the Turfan area with the art of the previous nomadic period. For the present, in order to understand which techniques, materials, types of clothing, and stylistic features can be linked to the Uygurs it is necessary to give a working definition of what constitutes Uygur art, although the main focus of the present study remains on the connections between the Dunhuang and 'Iurfan areas. Uygur art as we know it, has been excavated and studied only since the beginning of the twentieth century.
Four expeditions to the area ofTurfan were organised by the then Musewu fi.ir Volkerkunde (Ethnological Museum Berlin) between 1902 and 1914 . .27 The first reports were those written by the two leaders of the German expeditions: Albert Grunwedel and Albert von Le Coq. 28 The most important wall paintings come from a temple site called Bezeklik, near Turfan in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region (Plate 3). The collection was later transferred to the Museum fur Indische Kunst (MIK), 1n Berlin. 29 v Uygur works of art from Sorcuk (Shikshin), about 20 kilometres scmth-east of Kara.Sahr (near Karla), were removed by Sergei Oldenburg's Russian expedition and taken to St. Petersburg, where some of them are exhibited, but they remain largely unpublished to this day.30 The National Museum, in New Delhi, has an excellent collection of wall paintings from the Stein expeditions.
However, all these remain unresearched apart from their inclusion in the large album published by Fred H. Andrews. 31 The fragments are currently disassembled, awaiting conservation and remounting.32 There is also a considerable quantity of unpublished material in New Delhi from the pre-Uygur Turfan material, including pottery, objects and paintings, mainly found in Astana by Stein. Annemarie von Gabain was the first author to discuss Uygur art and culture beyond Griinwedel's definition. 33
She was very aware of the many questions her books raised, and that, because she was a linguist by training, her methods were not those of the art historian. Gabain has concentrated particularly on the links with China. Larry Clark emphasised the degree to which Uygur art and writing was borrowed from other cultures. 34 Even though Uygur literature w;:�.s a fusion of different artistic and cultural influences, its important achievements have been described by many scholars.35 Similarly the Uygurs metamorphosed various stylistic influences into a new synthesis that can be recognised as Uygur art. These distinctive features form the bulk of this study.
The multi-cultural aspect if Central Asian art Dunhuang lies at the crossroads, where the northern and southern branches of the Silk Road meet. Qoco, near modern-day Turfan, was one of the most important trading centres on the northern branch of the Silk Road. To varying degrees both Uygur art and the art of Dunhuang were influenced by all the major styles reaching them along the Silk Road. Table 1 shows the major influences that reached Dunhuang in the ninth and tenth centuries. Many of the same influences also reached the Uygurs in the same period, as is shown in Table 2.
This is one of the main reasons why disentangling the many layers of influence when discussing Dunhuang's links with the Uygurs is a very complex task. Many variants of Uygur art exist, and the assignment of various dates and schools must be addressed in future research. Thus this study concentrates on advancing the field in two primary areas: the art of tenth-century Dunhuang and the early Buddhist art of the Uygurs. Tables 1 and 2 identifY the main sources of influence on the formation ofUygur art in three main periods and in ninth-, tenth- and eleventh-century Dunhuang. Dunhuang and Qoco were always multiethnic, as oasis towns and as centres for religious worship. For this reason� at any one time a different quotient of cultural inOuence can be detected in the art of thtlse centres.
The exact nature of the merging of these influences is different almost painting by painting in periods of upheaval, such as the period of Tibetan occupation in Dunhuang between 781-847 or the late tenth-early eleventh centuries. In times of stability and a strong Chinese government, the art of Dunhuang reflected much more closely the influence 0f Chinese art (especially during the High Tang period between 705-780).36 This explains the great number of studies devoted to questions regarding Dun huang art during the High Tang, while the study of the late period has been somewhat neglected due to the complex nature of religious and artistic influences. In Table l it is clear that Tibetan art influenced Dunhuang strongly up to the middle of the ninth century, and after that it never quite disappeared.
This can be seen in the presence of esoteric mandalas and paintings throughout the late period. Tibetan art started to play a major role once again from the middle of the eleventh century, with the arrival of the Tanguts, who developed a unique style: for esoteric iconography they employed Tibetan art forms, while their Mahayana paintings were closely modelled on Chinese art of the Northern Song * (960-1 1 26) period. Christopher Beckwith has argued that the Tanguts were the preservers of Tibetan culture and religion in tbe region. 37 The influence of Chinese art continued in all periods, but to a diminishing extent. In the tenth century it is also important to obser\le that, due to the isolation of Dunhuang from. central China, a local art style developed. This was strengthened by the establishing of an Academy, which made the execution of a large number of cave temples and works of art possible.38 Consequently, we may conclude at this stage that the style of tenth and eleventh-century Dunhuang art was formed as the result of different influences. In my view 1 while there was only a negligible Uygur presence in Dunhuang in the ninth centwy, by the tenth centw.y Uygur art had become one of the major influences on the art ofDunhuang, and subsequently became the dominant factor by the first half of the eleventh century.
Uygur influence probably coexisted with and was gradually replaced by the influence of Tangut art. Table 2 shows the influences that reached tl1e Uygurs ill three major centres: before the mid-ninth centwy in the Kaghanate (in presentday Mongolia), from the second half of the ninth century onwards in Qoco, and in the tenth and eleventh centuries in Shazhou. In cont-r·ast with Dunhuang in the same period, in the ca<>e of the Uygurs only the Chinese cultural·models were constant. Tibetan influence reached the Uygurs later, probably only from the tenth century onwards. There was a strong inflence of Sogdian art through the Manichaean religion, and Tocharian influence became ve1y important once the Uygurs had settled in the Tarim Basin, as the cave temples and other monuments that became the model for the Uygurs had mostly been built by Tocharians.39 One of the major Tocharian centres was Khotan. The influence of Khotanese art both on Dunhuang and Qoco is important, but difficult to defme at present. A more detailed comparative study will be undertaken as a different project in the light of recent discoveries. 40 It is clear from the history of the Uygurs that they experienced many different eultural influences. These can be divided into two general groups: those from China and those from Central Asia. The pattern followed is well known from history, and f:rom Chinese history in particular.
A nomadic people came into contact with Chinese sedentary civilisation, and adopted its more developed systems of statesmanship and culture, adapting these to their own needs. In the case of other ethnic groups, the borrowers often became completely sinicised and assimilated into China after a short period of flourishing independently. In contrast, the Uygurs developed a culture independent of China's.
This was possible due to China's military weakness from the second half of the eighth to the deveath century. The other main reason for the creation of a distinct Uygur culture may have been that the Uygurs were selective in what they adopted from other cultures. For example, rather than accepting any of the main religions popular in Tang China, namely Buddhism, Daoism or Confucianism, the Uygun converted to Manichaeism, which they made their state religion. This seems to indicate that the Uygur ruling class had a conscious 'pickand-choose' policy with regard to forming their culture. Through their Manichaean religion they also became exposed to Persian and Sogdian art. The Uygurs' nomadic taste also continued to play an important role especially in the ornamental arts, in clothing, in the use of carpets, in the decoration of houses and in horse harness. Mter the fall of their steppe empire in the ninth century the Xizhou Uygurs took over a highly developed system of oasis cities, which had been under Chinese cultural domination, with Gaochang (Qoco) as the centre.
After their move the original :impact of Tang Chinese art on the Uygurs was once again reinforced by the influences ofDunhuang art and local Chinese art. Building oa their previous urban experiences the Xizhou branch of the Uygurs was very quick to adapt to the sedentary lifestyle. The Turfan area had a thriving Chinese community during the Tang dynasty, and Chinese works of art of the highest quality were available there, a fact that is not usually mentioned by the Turkologists working with Uygur material only. Ma:ny of the wooden funerary figures that survived in the tombs of Astana represent highly fashionable ladies clad in silks and Central Asian textiles.
Fragments dating from the time of the Chinese domination reflect the strong influence of imperial culture and high fashion in this remote outpost of Chinese culture.41 The oasis cities that became part of Xizhou Uygur territory also had a Tocharian population. Before the arrival of the Uygurs this area was already an important C<'Altre of Buddhist art. The extent of the influence ofKuchean art on the Uygurs has been very well researched by experts in Germany since the time of Griinwedel. 42 As the so-called four Turfan Expeditions brought back much material from Qjzil as well, German scholars were always in an excellent position to compare the wall paintings found there to those from the Turfan area. The art ofKhotan from the southern Silk Road is far more difficult to reconstruct. Its painting style is best known from the wooden panels found there by Aurel Stein. 43
The round faces and strong Sogdian influence in the gestures are features that Khotanese art seems to share with Uygur art. Most important is probably the presence of Hindu and hybrid deities with multiple arms and beads. Very similar treatment of these motifs is found in Uygur art. It is especially worth noting that the additional heads are not shown in profile but in an almost frontal three-quarter view looking at the viewer (Plate 38). Links with Khotan were undoubtedly strong through marriage and trade. Khotanese princesses were also often shown as donors in Dunhuang, for example in Cave 61 (Colour plates 2-3). In summary the following are the main components of Xizhou Uygur art: A: Art of Western Asia and Central Asia l. Nomadic and Turkic heritage 2. Persian art and Sogdian art through the influence of Manichaean art 3. Kuchean art 4. Khotanese art 5. Tibetan art 6. Tangut art B: Art of China 7. Tang Chinese art 8. Dunhuang art 9. Local Chinese art.
The tenth century was most probably the time when the characteristics of Uygur style crystallised into a recognisable pattern. The Uygurs did not settle permanently in the Xizhou area before the second half of the ninth century. It is evident from the history of 0ther nomadic groups that it usually takes several decades to develop the new art forms needed for the new cultural pract-ices associated with the settled lifestyle of the elite. This period is a time for experimentation. Building on the nomadic heritage, and incorporating the sedentary art of the local population and the inlluences brought by the new political alliances of the aristocracy a new synthesis is achieved. 44· Tables 1 and 2 draw attention to the composite nature of the art of both Qoco in the Uygur period and Dunhuang. It is clearly the case that by the tenth century the two centres were mutually influencing each other.
This study presents aspects of this regional interaction. Formulating a canon of tenth-century Uygur painting in Dunhuang will throw light on the interpretation of iconography and the dating of tminscribed paintings. Chapters One and Two present and reinterpret our current understanding of Uygur art and art patronage, and the historical and cultural links between the Chinese rulers of Dun huang and the Uygur rulers of the neighbouring regions. In Chapters Three and Four a group of important Dunhuang paintings are identified as the products of local Uygur patronage and analysed in this new light.
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