3 - Vajravārāhī in Khara Khoto and Prajñāpāramitā in East Java: Connected by Pearl Ornaments

Founded in 1032, Khara Khoto thrived in the Western Xia dynasty in the 11th century, and further flourished in the Mongol dynasty, tripleing in size under Kublai Khan. A ca. 12th-century tanka painting of Vajravārāhī from Khara Khoto century shows the bodhisattva decorated with a pearl-chain belt girdle and upper armbands. This particular form of pearl-chain jewellery which appears on Vajravārāhī and on other Tibetan-Central Asian style bodhisattvas, also appears on the stone statues of Prajñāpāramitā in East Java, all of which depict an near identical use of this pearl-chain ornamentation. This pearl-chain jewellery style is unique to these two regions from the 11th to the late 13th century. In East Java, there remain three stone statues of Prajñāpāramitā, all depicting this form of jewellery, together with one severely damaged statue of an unknown goddess, and another statue of Prajñāpāramitā in Muara Jambi.

Maritime trade between the two regions of China and Java, and the influence of Sino-Tibetan styles on tangka paintings with this particular depiction of the jewellery, perhaps indictes the transfer of such motifs between China and Java. These motifs were subsequently absorbed and re-interpreted by the artisans in Java.

This paper explores the network of maritime trade and hegemonic influences at the time of Emperor Kublai Khan in Khara Khoto and his connections with King Krtanagara of Singhasāri in East Java, and discusses north-south exchange, together with possible interrelated links with the Pāla kingdom in eastern India.