Final Project: Bhavacakra: The Wheel of Rebirth

Bhavacakra: The Wheel of Rebirth

The Wheel of Rebirth is a painting of the Buddhist belief in the six different lives a person can live. The life that you are born to next depends on your actions in the current life. The Wheel of Rebirth goes by many different names that all refer to the same cycle of death, rebirth, and causation, such as The Wheel of Life, Samsara, Reincarnation, Samasaracakra, and Bhavacakra (Oxford Bibliographies, 2012; Teiser, 2006). These paintings were used for teaching the six paths, and were positioned on the outside of a temple as often the monks would teach to a crowd outside of the temple, or an outer hallway for non-teaching locations such as in the Yulin Cave 19 (Teiser, 2006). The Yulin caves are located in Gansu province of China, and are a complex cave system with many remaining artifacts and paintings since its commission by a group of laypeople in 926 C.E. (Teiser, 2006). The Yulin caves are quite close to Dunhuong, a main Silk Road city, just to northeast along the Hexi corridor (Teiser, 2006). Yulin Cave 19 holds the title of the earliest indisputable painting of The Wheel of Life in China and is extremely unique in many ways. How does the way religion is interpreted differ from place to place? Why does something that has a clearly prescribed standard form become unique without reflecting any major change in the religion itself? This essay will explore why the Yulin Cave 19 example is so different from other known Wheels of Rebirth.

The Wheel of Rebirth has the six paths circling a central hub, normative symbols for the chain of causation, and the entire wheel is being held by a demons mouth (Teiser, 2006, pg. 163). This painting differs from the standard simple wheel by adding two more rings outside the rim of causation and outside of the wheel scenes from hell are depicted (Teiser, 2006, pg. 163). Unfortunately half of the wheel is missing due to a more modern passageway being carved out, completely obliterating part of the image. However from the part still surviving it is apparent this is a more detailed Bhavacakra, with colours still preserved (Teiser, 2006 p. 29). Many of the earliest examples of The Wheel of Rebirth are faded, or in similar condition to the Yulin Cave 19 example. The wall painting at Pedongo cave temple from the twelfth century, the ninth century Kumtura cave 75 image, and the Ajanta cave 17 from the fifth century are all similarly worn, with some part being very clear, others pieces completely gone, and some extremely faded (Teiser, 2006, pg. 27, 29, 31). One major reason for this is probably their location in the outermost parts of these cave systems. They are the least protected from weather such as wind, water, and sun that could all have contributed to the decreasing quality, as well as one of the first pieces any explorer or vandal would come across. However much can be inferred about each piece by contemplating them in comparison to other examples, as they all appear to contain the same basic elements, which local additions and differing artistic styles separating them from each other. The Yulin Cave 19 example is unique in its placement in that it is directly opposite a painting of Maudgalyayana’s tour of hell, which Teiser believes was a decision made to honor the Buddha’s wishes of having a Wheel of Rebirth depicted in the place of Maudgalyayana lecturing (Teiser, 2006). This means the entrance of the cave contains images of the cycle of rebirth and the inner chamber contain protector deities and a further chamber pure lands (Teiser, 2006). This means that you enter the caves seeing all of the forms of life and then move beyond to a “paradise beyond suffering” (Teiser, 2006, pg. 163).

The Bhavacakra generally follow a guideline, with varying differences depending on local custom, the artist, year, and level of detail. The fifth century example from Ajanta Cave 17 has more differences from the Yulin Cave 19 piece than the Yulin has with more contemporary paintings such as the twelfth century image in Pedongo (Teiser, 2006, pg. 27, 29, 31). Located centrally in what is referred to as the hub is the three poisons, hate, greed, and delusion which are usually represented by animals, specifically a bird, snake and a pig (Teiser, 2004). However in the Yulin Cave 19 image the hub appears to contain a lone figure although half of it is too extremely damaged to tell whether animals also reside in the hub (Teiser, 2004; Teiser, 2006, pg. 29). Ringed around the hub and sectioned so that each are clearly separate are the 6 paths (sometimes five) that represent the six possibly lives that people can be reborn into (Teiser, 2004). The top half contains gods, humans and may or may not include Asuras (low ranking, emotional gods), while the bottom half contains animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings (Teiser, 2004). What is generally the outer ring contains “symbols representing the twelve conditions in the chain of causation” (Teiser, 2004, pg. 73). The chain of causation uses different images to represent ignorance, volitional action or conditioning, consciousness, name and form, six sensory organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind), contact or touch, sensation, desire, grasping, becoming or existence, birth, and decay and death (University of Idaho, 2012). Each of these traits are symbolized, for example ignorance is shown as a blind man and a monkey represents consciousness (Teiser, 2004). The Yulin Cave 19 painting only has 8 remaining of these of an original 18, a greater number than the prescribed format (Teiser, 2004). However while Teiser believes he interpreted two of the images to their correct meaning he is unable to prove it because that would mean this Wheel of Rebirth does not follow the standardized order found in other versions (2004). He also remarked on the unusual counter clockwise order as another defining feature of this particular sample (Teiser, 2004). The next ring is not usually found in other Wheels of Rebirth, nor has the image contained in it ever been seen before (Teiser, 2004). The image is that of a man with deer legs and a human head (Teiser, 2004). There are other anthropomorphic beings as well which is extremely different from the usual scripted images of people displaying progress or regressions by having their feet or threads in buckets (Teiser, 2004). This may be the exact same purpose to show progress or a lack of it, but it is done using animal characteristics instead of buckets. It could also signify the transfer of a person from one cycle to the next (Teiser, 2004). The outermost ring contains mostly women facing the center, perhaps respecting a holy figure, but it is also unique and the meaning or purpose of its presence is unknown (Teiser, 2006). The demon gripping the wheel in his jaws is Yama the god of the dead (University of Idaho, 2012). It is Yama who turns The Wheel of Rebirth (University of Idaho, 2012).

The site at Yulin is unique and really shows how local differences can effect something so central to a religion without changing the religion itself. Perhaps a Silk Road connection can be made here, in that ideas being transferred somehow changed the way these locals (the artist, monk or the people) wanted the Bhavacakra immortalised.The cave site is very close to Dunhuang which was a main site for The Silk Road so it is not impossible. Or perhaps their used to be other versions similar to the Yulin Cave 19 painting but they are lost, destroyed or otherwise did not manage to escape the test of time. Maybe someone will discover another cave site, with a similar version of this wall painting one day. Early history always has a lot of blank spaces and this is also true in the case of the Bhavacakra. Many of the Bhavacakras are Tibetan, this one is the earliest Chinese version, so perhaps the two cultures intermingling created this unique piece, before the Chinese living in Yulin fully understood the full instructions on how to create the Wheel of Rebirth (Teiser, 2006). It is also possible that the Chinese interpretations of each instruction varied due to different norms. There are many possibilities when it comes to early history and sometimes there is no one explanation.

References

Oxford Bibliographies. (2012). Wheel of Life (Bhava-Cakra). Retrieved from: http://webcache. googleusercontent.com/searchq=c ache:http:// www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393521/obo- 97801953935210072.xml&gws_rd=cr&ei=vdpNVu3VHcnbmAHY-7rQBg

Royal Ontario Museum. Retrieved from: http://images.rom.on.ca/public/index.php? function=image&action=detail&sid=&ccid=

Teiser, S.F. (2006). Reinventing the Wheel: Paintings of Rebirth in Medieval Buddhist Temples. Seattle & London: University of Washington Press.

Teiser, S.F. (2004). The Local and the Canonical: Pictures of the Wheel of Rebirth in Gansu and Sichuan. Asia Major, 17(1), 73–122.

University of Idaho. (2012). Bhavacakra: Wheel of Becoming/Wheel of Life. Retrieved from: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/humanities/Bhavacakra.htm