Fó shuō dàkǒngquè míngwáng huàxiàng tánchǎng yíguǐ 佛說大孔雀明王畫像壇場儀軌
Buddha-Pronounced Ritual Manual for the Painted-Image Altar-Site of the Great Peacock Vidyārājñī by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle ritual companion to Amoghavajra’s Mahāmāyūrī-vidyārājñī sūtra (KR6j0167 T982), specifying the iconography of the Peacock-Vidyārājñī painted image, the construction of the maṇḍala altar-site, the offering sequence, and the integrated yoga recitation practice. The text exemplifies the Tang Esoteric model of pairing each principal vidyārājñī sūtra with a dedicated ritual manual.
Abstract
The huàxiàng tánchǎng yíguǐ genre (painted-image-altar ritual manual) constitutes the principal extension of the Tang Esoteric yoga-tantra corpus into iconographic-spatial liturgy. The text specifies the goddess Peacock-Vidyārājñī’s iconography (white-bodied, four-armed, riding the peacock, bearing the standard yoga-tantra attributes), the four-quarter altar layout, the offering sequence (eight outer plus four inner offerings), and the mudrā-mantra-recitation triplets for daily and ceremonial-occasional practice. As a working ritual manual it became the principal liturgical reference for the Tang state-protection Mahāmāyūrī rites performed by Amoghavajra at court. The composition falls within Amoghavajra’s mature Cháng’ān period (746–774).
Translations and research
- DesJardins, J. F. Marc. Le Sūtra de Mahāmāyūrī. Paris: Cerf, 2017.
- Sørensen, Henrik H. “Esoteric Buddhism under the Tang.” In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.