The Lankavatara Sutra
The Lankavatara Sutra in the UCLA Special Collection is a good example of an early Chinese Buddhist religious document. Found in Mogao Cave 17, also known as the library cave, the scroll is in relatively good condition. That condition is owed partly due to the fact that the document was dyed with tamarind, which might be why the document is yellow. Another reason the document may be yellow is that paper oxidizes over time, which causes its color to change. The color is likely a combination of the two above factors. There is also some water damage, but it is not severe enough to disturb the main text. The scroll has a silk backing, which also helped in maintaining the structural integrity of the paper; additionally silk has antimicrobial properties, which possibly helped as well. The text itself is very clearly written, and is remarkably uniform; there are sixteen evenly spaced rows throughout the entire document, and there are some faint ruler markings, which would likely have made it easier to keep the text neat. The margins are about two characters wide, and they minimized the water damage on the text as well, because the edges of the scroll are usually less protected than the center, where the main portion of the text lies. There is a red character next to another, and this was possibly an annotation or correction of a mistake. There is an additional red stamp at the end of the document, which is probably a sign of authorship or ownership. The script the document is written in is either clerical or regular, which indicates that the document was intended for somewhat widespread use. If the script had been cursive or running, then then it would have been substantially more difficult to read, and it would not be accessible to as many people. The front of the silk foundation has ornate designs, with what looks like cloud, flower, and bird motifs. The back has a different design, with small patterning that is regularly interrupted by circular designs that appear to be flowers.
It is interesting to compare the Lankavatara Sutra with the Mudra drawings, written in the late 800s CE. The Mudra drawings are depictions of hands in different Buddhist Mudras, or religious hand positions. They show some surprising similarities, despite having different content. They are both extremely neat, and each have faint ruler marks, which indicates how important the creators thought keeping the work uniform was. In fact, the hands in the Mudra drawings can almost be seen as characters themselves; the ruler lines demarcate the columns that the hands belong in, much like the ruler marks around the characters in the Lankavatara Sutra. Indeed the hands each have small bracelets around their wrists, each with six beads. Additionally, they both are made of multiple pieces of paper that have been either stitched or glued together, and are depicted with black ink. However, the Mudra drawings are significantly less yellow than the Sutra, suggesting that it has not been dyed with tamarind. Also, the Mudra drawings do not appear to be contained in a scroll. Unlike the Sutra, the paper has fold lines, indicating that it was merely folded and put away; it does not have a silk backing either, suggesting that it was a less important document than the Sutra.
The Lankavatara Sutra holds a particular fascination for me, because it is in such good condition. Even as someone who cannot read Chinese, I can appreciate the quality of the paper and its backing, and the time that went into making it. Its quality indicates it was clearly an important document, and it was important enough for the monks to hide it away in the library cave. Its existence also proves how important the Buddhist religion was in the lives of the people in China, because someone went through an incredible amount of time not only to create that paper, but also to write it. Other texts found in the Library Cave appear to be scraps of paper that people practiced on, before writing on the actual scroll, therefore the time needed to write the scroll was likely extensive. Additionally, copying works of art or text is considered an important sign of devotion in Buddhist art. One could gain karmic merit by creating copies of religious texts and art. Due to this practice, many old works have survived through copies after the originals were lost. Copying may also have been considered an act of meditation; it requires concentration, devotion, and a clear mind, similar to meditation. Since the Sutra was used as a teaching of consciousness, it was likely used to help meditation practitioners, who came to the Dunhuang caves to use the meditation cells that are there; copying the Sutra could also have been a form of meditation (Wong).
The Lankavatara Sutra is an incredible document. It teaches scholars about papermaking in ancient China, Buddhist beliefs at the time, as well as suggesting a relationship between the document and how the caves were used. For modern museum goers, the handwritten document creates a connection between the people who view it today and the people who wrote it hundreds of years ago.
-Kaylene Goldberg
Works Cited:
A Buddhist Bible: The Lankavatara Sutra: Chapter II. False-Imagination and Knowledge of Appearances. https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/bb/bb09.htm.
The Getty Research Institute (Mudra Drawings). Getty Research Institute . https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/cave_temples_dunhuang/gallery.html.
Tsien, T.-hsuin. (1963). Written on bamboo and silk the beginnings of Chinese books and inscriptions. The University of Chicago Press.
Wong, Dorothy C. COMPANION TO CHINESE HISTORY, JOHN WILEY, 2021.