Visualizing the Intermediary Existence (Antarābhava) in Dunhuang Cave Art and Texts (Kṣitigarbha and the Ten Kings Revisited)

This paper revisits the significance of the paintings of Kṣitigarbha (Dizang 地藏) Bodhisattva and the Ten Kings in Dunhuang (Northwest China) from the tenth century onwards. It argues that the significance of such Dunhuang paintings lies in their in situ physical location within the cave architectural structure, specifically on the ceiling of the passageway in several Mogao caves.  Studying the relevant Kṣitigarbha cave art, alongside passages from the Abhidharmakośa, the Sūtra on the Past Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and the Sutra on the Ten Kings [of the Underworld], this paper argues that the shift in the physical location of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva and changes in his iconography in this period in Dunhuang caves are efforts to translate into architectural and art imagery the place of the intermediate existence (Skt., antarābhava; Ch., zhongyou 中有or zhongyinshen 中阴身) within Buddhist afterlife cosmology, when the disembodied consciousness awaits its next rebirth.  Cave architecture offers the conducive structures that physically enacted the sojourn from this world to the interim existence and then, to the wishful destination of the next rebirth.  Thus, through architectural placement, Dunhuang cave art was able to materialize the antarābhava in a manner that no other media could achieve.