300 Chinese Clay Figures 



armored; at the same time they are regarded as "protectors of religion" 

 (Sanskrit dharmapala) , and for this reason are shown in so-called terrific 

 forms. 1 



Analogous types of Lokapala are met in the contemporaneous stone 

 sculpture of China, for instance, in the caves of Lung-men. 2 A marble 

 relief (Plate LXI) in the Museum collection shows an armored Virupak- 

 sha leaning on a two-edged sword, and holding a miniature Stupa (tope) 

 in his left hand. 3 The armor is very clearly represented: the breast- 

 plates tightly envelop the thorax, and are held in place by means of 

 broad leather suspenders running over the shoulders and connecting 

 with the dossiere. The metal buckles fixed to the edge of the plastron 

 are plainly visible, and tongues are passed through perforations of the 

 straps. The ends of these straps reach the centre of either breastplate, 

 and are strengthened at this spot by an additional piece of leather. 

 The belt is a broad leather band starting in a rosette from the sternum, 

 the end being turned upward from beneath the girdle. 



It is of especial interest that similar clay figures representing Loka- 

 pala (the term is perhaps too narrow, and should rather be Dharmapala) 

 have been discovered in Turkistan. 4 These are likewise enveloped by 

 suits of armor much resembling those of the Chinese and Japanese clay 

 statuettes. It is therefore obvious that in this case the question is not 

 of any national type of armor which the Chinese applied to the clay 

 figures, but that this armor was already peculiar to the latter when they 

 were received in the channel of Buddhist art and reproduced by the 

 potters of China. The art displayed in the caves of Tun-huang on the 

 boundary of Turkistan and China may be made directly responsible for 

 the transmission of this particular type from Turkistan to China; for 

 there we find a statue of a Dharmapala standing on a demon, and with 

 exactly the same characteristics as our Chinese clay figures. 6 Was this 

 armor ever a living reality in China, or did it merely remain an artistic 

 motive? It is not very likely that it ever became of any practical use 

 among the Chinese. It is not described in the official records of the 

 T'ang dynasty; at least, in the records at our disposal no armor is 



1 Styled in Sanskrit krodha, in opposition to gdnta, the mild forms. A mild form 

 of Yama seated on the back of a bull was painted by the Buddhist monk Eri, who died 

 m 935 (reproduction in Kokka, No. 133, 1902). 



2 Chavannes, Mission, No. 353. Besides the hero and warrior type of Lokapala, 

 we have in the same period a nude type clad only with an apron, and with fine 

 modelling of strong, well-developed muscles {ibid., Nos. 358, 359). An excellent 

 marble of the latter type is in the collection of Field Museum. 



3 Styled in Chinese "King of Heaven lifting a Stupa" (T'o t'a t'ien wang). 



4 A. Grunwedel, Altbuddhistische Kultstatten in Chinesisch-Turkistan, p. 205. 



6 A. Maybon, L'art bouddhique du Turkestan oriental, p. 55 (L'art decoratif, 

 1910). 



