Fǎhuá màntúluó wēiyí xíngsè fǎjīng 法華曼荼羅威儀形色法經
Sūtra of the Awesome-Decorum, Form, and Color of the Lotus Maṇḍala by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric scripture by Amoghavajra (不空) specifying the iconographic-spatial layout of the Lotus Maṇḍala (Fǎhuá màntúluó 法華曼荼羅) — the Esoteric yoga-mandala visualisation of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka’s central figures arranged in a formal iconographic plan. The text gives the xíngsè 形色 (form-and-colour) specifications of the deities, their mudrā, bīja-syllables, and ornamental attributes, together with the wēiyí 威儀 (awesome-decorum) of the ritual gestures.
Abstract
The Lotus Maṇḍala is a distinctively Tang Esoteric mandala that integrates the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka’s narrative-doctrinal figures (the Buddha Vairocana / Śākyamuni, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and the eight great bodhisattvas) within a formal yoga-tantra-grade mandala layout — specifically the Lotus-Family (Padma-kula 蓮華部) sub-section of the eight-petal Garbhadhātu mandala from the Mahāvairocana-sūtra tradition. The text was central to the Japanese Tendai-Esoteric Lotus-tradition mandala-painting practice, especially under Ennin (圓仁) and 最澄 Saichō, and provided the iconographic basis for the famous Hokke-mandara paintings of the Heian and Kamakura periods preserved at Mount Hiei and Onjō-ji.
Translations and research
- ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. — for the Hokke-mandara and its iconography.
- Stone, Jacqueline I. Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.