Anning Jing: "Borobudur and a Tantric Buddhist Maṇḍala Associated with Vajrabodhi (671–741)"

Abstract:

This talk reexamines Borobudur through the transmission of Esoteric Buddhist teachings associated with Indian Tantric Buddhist master Vajrabodhi (671–741). It argues that Vajrabodhi’s activities in Java and China, his transmission of Tantric teachings to Amoghavajra, and the subsequent initiation of the Javanese monk Bianhong into the Garbhadhātu Maṇḍala by Amoghavajra’s disciple Huiguo created the historical and doctrinal framework for Borobudur’s construction. A three-dimensional Buddhist maṇḍala known as the shi 式 or “secret disc”, described in a Tang Buddhist text attributed to Vajrabodhi, closely parallels Borobudur’s architectural form, cosmological model, iconographic program of the Five Jina Buddhas, and solar symbolism. It proposes that Borobudur was conceived as a monumental celestial maṇḍala of Mahāvairocana, shaped by Vajrabodhi’s Esoteric Buddhist lineage and its cosmological vision. Vajrabodhi’s shi, however, was rooted in the traditional Chinese shi, whose origins can be traced to the Neolithic Liangzhu Culture of southeastern China.

Bio:

Anning Jing received his MA in Art History from Ohio State University in 1989 and PhD in Art History from Princeton University in 1993. He has been teaching Asian art at Michigan State University since 1995. His main publications include The Water God's Temple of the Guangsheng Monastery: Cosmic Function of Art, Ritual, and Theater (Leiden: Brill, 2002), Yuandai biha “Shenxianfuhui tu” (The Yuan Murals “Assembly of the Immortals”; Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2002, second edition 2016), Daojiao Quanzhenpai de gongguan, zaoxiang yu zushi (Temples, images and patriarchs of the Complete Realization School of Daoism; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2012).