Tibet in the Dunhuang Murals: Voices Carved in Stone
Before a stone stele stands a willow tree. As time has worn on, the Tibetan and Chinese inscriptions on the stele have grown ever fainter, yet the narratives concealed within those characters only appear sharper and more meaningful. Confronting this textual forest, where decades of history are compressed into series of names, the phrase "Zhang Khri Sum Rje" ( ཞང་ཁྲི་སུམ་རྗེ ) still retains an air of authority.
At the time the Jokhang Temple stele was erected, Dunhuang still remained under Tibetan control—a control that had begun some thirty years earlier. This very Zhang Khri Sum Rje had then led troops across the Shazhou deserts, the area now called Dunhuang, in the northeastern part of Tibet. Through siege tactics, he spent years exhausting Shazhou’s provisions and weapons, as the phrase puts it, until the city fell, marking the start of more than sixty years of Tibetan rule over Dunhuang. Tibetan occupation of Dunhuang.
The end of Tibetan rule in Dunhuang is widely agreed to be 848, while the exact start year remains contested (777; 781; 785; 786; 787; 788). During that time, "Tibetan ethnic rule had a profound impact on Dunhuang, influencing politics, economy, culture, ethnic relations, and many other aspects... breaking the centuries-old traditional pattern dominated by Han culture in Dunhuang" (as cited in Research on Dunhuang Caves during the Tibetan Rule Period).
Dunhuang had been stagnating, yet the Tibetan occupation appears to have provided it with renewed vitality. During that period, its art advanced remarkably: "Over forty new caves were excavated, and more than twenty caves from the High Tang period that were left unfinished were restored and completed, an astonishing number" (quoted from An Introduction to Dunhuang Cave Art ).
Tibetan culture influenced the artistic style of the Dunhuang murals in several distinct ways. The overall structure of mural creation changed, as compositions shifted from a single unified scene into multiple sections with the inclusion of screen paintings. The murals also contained a greater number of sutra illustration paintings, alongside the emergence of various Tibetan-themed subjects, and Tibetan donor figures appeared within the artwork. Stylistically, lines, forms, and coloring moved away from the rich, heavy, and luxurious manner characteristic of the High Tang toward a more elegant and fluid approach.
A few Dunhuang murals shaped by Tibetan culture will be introduced here. Among them, the *Portrait of the Tibetan Tsanpo Paying Homage to the Buddha*, located in Cave 159 of the Mogao Caves, stands as a typical instance of Tibetan figures within Dunhuang mural art. This work belongs to the *Vimalakirti Sutra Illustration*, and under Tibetan rule, a total of nine such illustrations were made.
In the mural at Cave 159, eight Tibetan figures appear in all, and the fourth one, clad in a white lapel robe, stands for the Tibetan Tsanpo. Normally, a Central Chinese emperor is shown beneath Manjusri, yet in this era, Tibetan Tsanpos took the place of those homage-paying figures within the sutra illustrations. The artwork shows the layman Vimalakirti pretending to be unwell, while Manjusri arrives to "inquire about his health.
Images of Tibetan Tsanpos paying homage to the Buddha appear in Caves 9, 231, and 360, among others, in addition to Cave 159. The two women at the end, dressed in Han-style clothing, are now thought to be the Tsanpo's consorts. Surrounding the figure—who wears a leather belt, carries a short sword, displays green trousers with red edges, black boots, and a 'Tsanxia hat,' with hair hanging down both temples—are Tibetan attendants in front and behind, holding incense burners or flowers.
A mural titled *The Mourning of Monarchs from Various Nations* is found on the north wall of Cave 158 in the Mogao Caves, where a reclining Buddha lies across the space. It portrays the mourning of various princes after the Buddha's nirvana. The figures bear similar forms, indicating a shared source of inspiration.
Among all wedding scenes in the Dunhuang murals, the one in Cave 25 of the Yulin Caves is without doubt the most studied by scholars, since it shows a Han bride and a Tibetan groom being married in the Dunhuang region. The Tibetan Tsanpo stands on the far left, 'wearing a high turban-like crown, with braided hair tied into a bun behind the ears, dressed in an inner garment with a crossed collar and an outer robe with a flipped lapel and left-exposed long sleeves.
The ceremony being performed is the “man kneeling, woman bowing” ritual, a common feature in Dunhuang wedding murals. In the tableau, a “Tibetan man with a red headband and wearing a robe” kneels, flanked by three women. The woman at the center, marked by tall brocade flowers in her hair, is the bride; the other two, positioned on either side, are her bridesmaids. All three women are dressed and coiffed in typical Han Chinese style.
A "T-shaped" Tibetan inscription appears in the lower left corner of the *Maitreya Sutra Illustration* on the cave's north wall. The wedding scene, part of the same illustration, is located in its lower right section.
Professors Xie Jisheng and Huang Weizhong have read the inscription as: "The younger brother of the Cao family commissioned this holy painting, which is dedicated to the merit of 'Shangxi,' excellent!" They identify "Shangxi" (ཤང་ཤེའི) with "Sangxi" (སང་ཤི), the celebrated monk-minister from Trisong Detsen's era who appears in Tibetan historical records such as the *Ba Tradition*. As for the sequence of creation, since "the handwriting, ink color, and content match the mural," the speculation is that "the Tibetan text was written first according to the size of the label, and then the frame was painted.
The *Map of Mount Wutai*, another Dunhuang mural, is linked to the Sangxi referred to in the *Ba Tradition* and other texts, irrespective of whether these two figures are the same person. Turning to Mount Wutai and Tibet, the mountain’s sacred legends had certainly reached Tibet well before that time. Evidence can be found in writings from the era of Trisong Detsen (?-797 AD), especially the Wa Tradition—an earlier version of the *Ba Tradition*—which already contains accounts related to Mount Wutai.
The most celebrated among these is the story of Sangxi and four other Tibetan envoys who traveled to Mount Wutai. A masterpiece from the period of Tibetan rule, the mural Manjusri Attending the Assembly, on the west wall of Cave 220 of the Mogao Caves, has the Map of Mount Wutai located beneath it. The expanded version of the *Ba Tradition* records that when Sangxi and his four companions reached Central China, the emperor greatly favored them and desired to make them inner court officials.
The account of Sangxi obtaining the *Map of Mount Wutai* is highly credible, despite the original text being interwoven with mystical legends. Sangxi insisted on acquiring Buddhist scriptures and returning to Tibet. Later, all five traveled to Mount Wutai, but the other four, for various reasons, could not reach the summit. In the end, Sangxi paid homage at the Manjusri Hall and, from that experience, obtained a map of Mount Wutai and successfully carried it back to Tibet.
The reason is that the *Map of Mount Wutai* first appeared in Dunhuang murals during the period of Tibetan rule. In addition, four of the seven existing *Maps of Mount Wutai* in the Mogao Caves date from that same era, specifically those in Caves 159, 222, 237, and 361.
The oldest existing record of Mount Wutai, the *Ancient Records of Qingliang*, contains a further fascinating detail: during the Longshuo era of Emperor Gaozong of Tang (661-663), a Han Chinese monk called Hui Ze, together with a palace attendant, went to Mount Wutai to "inspect the sacred sites." Following their report, Hui Ze produced a "small screen painting"—a type of folding screen—depicting the mountain, along with a written *Brief Account* of it. The same passage also notes that the mountain was depicted in this folding screen, with the *Brief Account* serving as an accompanying text.
The Tibetan Empire fell in 842 AD following the assassination of Langdarma and the ensuing conflict between his two sons. This event played a major role in the wide circulation of Mount Wutai's narratives. In particular, the four *Maps of Mount Wutai* from the Tibetan rule period, as previously noted, were produced as screen paintings.
In Cave 159 of the Mogao Caves, the large mural Procession of Zhang Yichao memorializes a historic event. Six years later, in 848 AD, Zhang Yichao—a native of Shazhou (Dunhuang)—seized upon Tibet's weakening state and assembled other local elites to launch an uprising, thus bringing Tibetan governance over the Hexi Corridor, with Dunhuang as its center, to an end.
Though Tibetan dominion over Dunhuang had ceased, the artistic heritage and reforms introduced during that era left a lasting imprint on the region. Zhang Yichao appears in the mural "wearing a white gauze headdress, dressed in a red robe, riding a white horse, holding a whip in one hand and reins in the other, with two attendants walking alongside the horse to guard him." Later, during the Yuan Dynasty, the pictorial motifs established under Tibetan influence advanced even further.
Despite the fading of the murals' colors over time, the narratives they contain continue to radiate vividly. An examination of history through artistic expression. This piece is adapted from Suolangwangqing's blog.