Eiko Uehara
Otani University
This paper deals with the so-called “jewel tree” seen in the Gandharan steles depicting the preaching Buddha surrounded by numerous bodhisattvas. Recent studies of such Gandharan steles have found a controversial issue: who is the Buddha preaching enthroned in the center of the composition and which realm is depicted in the steles. However, we will refrain from any further discussion for the identification of the Buddha and his realm and focus in this paper on the following specific motif, that is, a jewel tree above the Buddha’s head. The tree is made up of foliage or sprays of leaves radiating out from the center, sometimes garlands of pearls or the upper bodies of figures with halos can be recognized.
No one denies that some representations of rebirth from lotuses seen in the Dun-Huang paintings are quite similar to the jewel tree in Gandharan art. Although some scholars suggest that such vegetation motif could be an iconographic source of the depiction of rebirth from lotuses popular in the Buddhist art in East Asia, at this moment there is no crucial evidence that the Gandharan figures sprouting from the foliage are depiction of rebirth from lotuses. Examining such iconographic features as foliage motifs and figures in detail, this paper will try to clarify the concept of the jewel tree in Gandhara.
(Presented in the 2014 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: Flower Culture in Asia, 8-9 July 2014, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, and Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)