The Chinese Frontier of Newar Buddhism: Art and Ritual

This paper describes the farthest premodern extensions of Newar Buddhist artistic traditions into China, the result of the residence of famous Nepali Buddhists: master artist Arniko (阿尼哥, 1245 - 1306), the pandit/pilgrim monk Sahaja Śri (at Wutai Shan 1369-1374), and the eminent monk Śri Śariputra (1335-1426). This paper will present major examples where these Kathmandu Valley Newars seem to have impacted Chinese history, and consider what the architectural record suggests about the Buddhist doctrines and ritual practices were that originated from Nepal. 

Arniko came to China from Tibet as a young protégé during in the Yuan dynasty. This gifted artist and architect had attracted such attention for his work in central Tibet that the Mongol ruler of China, Kublai Khan, employed him to build Buddhist monuments to establish a protective religious schema for the walled city of Beijing. Arniko is recorded as builder of the Dashengshou Wan’an Temple at the city center that was completed in 1279. This large complex had at its core a large stūpa over 50 meters high, made in the Tibetan style. (It was renamed Miaoying Si upon being rebuilt in 1457 after a fire; repeatedly restored after at least 10 major repairs, the last in 1978, it is popularly known as the "White Pagoda Temple" today.) Chinese imperial records chronicle the great renown Arniko had in the imperial court and note his work over three decades in statue making, monastery construction, and monumental stūpa building. Commissions he took on enlisted an atelier of over two hundred artisans of Newar, Tibetan, Mongol, and Chinese ethnicity.

Arniko’s stūpa and monastery building at Wutai Shan (in modern Shanxi Province) was at the center of Mongol patronage at this spiritual center and pilgrimage destination that had long attracted pilgrims from across the Buddhist world, including from as far as India. Staying in residence there for over ten years, Arniko built a large relic stūpa, pilgrim guesthouses, and several monasteries, including the Wan-shen-hu-guo Temple, a project of the mother of emperor Chen Zhong. Though not yet fully documented, Arniko’s impact on the religious architecture of Beijing, at gateways along the northern Great Wall, and in the religious architecture of Wu Tai Shan, can be read to project what the content of other Buddhist religious traditions were that also were part of this important era of cultural diffusion.   

Though built early in the Ming period, the Zhenjue Temple reflects clear Newar-Tibetan influences, as it is a site in Beijing where a portion of the cremation relics of the monk Sahaja Śri were interred. Located on the Changhe River outside the Xizhimen Gateway in the northwest, just outside the city wall, this temple resembles others built across the Buddhist world as a replica of the Bodh Gaya temple in India, where the Buddha was enlightened. The temple rises above a massive 70 foot high square base that has over one thousand stone carvings of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, protector deities, and symbols carved on the walls of all four sides; at the four corners of the roof are four 11-tier śikhara/pagoda towers 21 feet high; at the center between them rises a higher śikhara/pagoda 40 feet high defined by 13 tiers. It is the design and imagery in the main entry of the monument, as well as the central niches (containing Buddha statues) carved into the base of each of these towers that show unmistakable Himalayan influences: a Garuda grasping nāgas in both claws; makaras – crocodile-faced mythical Ganges creatures – flank a tympanum over the shrine entrance; and the placement of large opposing pairs of elephant, lion, and horse guardians outside the shrine entry. None of these architectural features are typical of Chinese temples.  A small traditional stūpa on the upper balcony has a niche with an image of Uṣṇīṣavijayā, a long-life Buddhist deity utilized in Nepal for elder life-cycle rites and a popular dhāraṇī recitation practice; its presence also suggests Nepali or Tibetan agency in introducing a practice extant in the early phases of Indic tantra. This site’s stylistic program also supports the testimony of the Chinese chronicle that has the emperor Chen Zhu acting as patron and sponsor of rituals performed for his benefit by the Newar pandit Sahaja Śri.