The Clothing Styles and Sources of the Statues of Maidservants in Niche 91 of Feilaifeng—The Logic of Image Derivation in Early Tibetan Buddhist Art in the Mainland of China
This paper centers on the statues of maidservants in the niche of the Virupa statue in the Feilaifeng Grotto in Hangzhou.By combining the paintings and archaeological excavations of the Song Dynasty,it argues that the clothing pattern of the maidservants in the cave is a common style of the Central Plains in the Song Dynasty,such as pasties,pleated skirts,short coats,and cloudy shoulders,rather than the South Asian styles that were previously thought to be.It is an implantation of the mainland dress culture in the early Tibetan Bud-dhist statues in the South Yangtze River regions On this basis this paper comprehensively discusses the exist-ing Virupa images in China from the 10th to 13th centuries sorting out the source of their styles and the logic of their evolution,and points out that the statues in the cave were formed by inheriting the popular styles in the Xixia and Hexi regions and incorporating mainland art elements.This image evolution logic is a vivid embodi-ment of the development of Tibetan Buddhism in the Chinese context in the South Yangtze River regions of the Yuan Dynasty.It is also the main creative idea of Tibetan Buddhist art in the mainland since the Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties.It has played a positive role in the spread of Tibetan Buddhist art in the mainland.
Feilaifeng GrottoesNiche of Virupa statueMaidservant statueClothing styleImage evolution