Taima Mandara and Meditation on the Pure Land

	Taima Mandara and Meditation on the Pure Land

	Taima Mandara. 13 th century. Color on silk; 71 3 / 8 x 70 5 / 8 in. Nara National Museum.	Diagrammatic representation of the Taima mandara. Distributed by Taimadera, Nara prefecture, Japan.
Recorded in the Buddhist sutra, Muryojukyo, is an account of the origin of Amida’s Pure Land. The monk Dharmakara decided not to accept enlightenment unless he could make a blissful realm for all beings, as a reprieve from the suffering of this world. Below is one of his many vows:
	“May I not gain possession of perfect awakening if, once I have attained buddhahood, any among the throng of living beings in the ten regions of the universe should single-mindedly desire to be reborn in my land with joy, with confidence, and gladness, and if they should bring to mind this aspiration for even ten moments of thought and yet not gain rebirth there. This excludes only those who have committed the five heinous sins and those who have reviled the True Dharma.”
When Dharmakara did finally reach enlightenment, his wish was fulfilled and the Pure Land paradise was made as to harbor beings in their way to enlightenment (ten Grotenhuis 16-17). This Pure Land is the one depicted in the Taima Mandara. Dharmakara, now the buddha Amida, lives in and advises those who enter the realm. The Muryojukyo, one of the three main Buddhist sutras this piece is based on, describes three types of believers: a “superior type”, an “intermediate type”, and an “inferior type” who enter the Western Pure Land due to their desire and focus on Amida. Those of an “inferior type” are greeted by Amida in a dream as they die, whereas those of an “intermediate type” are greeted by an illusion of Amida and his holy retinue. The beings of a “superior type” are greeted, in person, by Amida and his sacred followers at their death and are reborn into lotus flowers in the Pure Land (ten Grotenhuis 17). These scenes are depicted in the lower half of the tapestry.

The center of the tapestry depicts the Buddhist Pure Land. The pictures are based on two of the three main Buddhist teachings, the Amidakyo and the Muryojuko, incorporated into Japanese life from India. The gold Pure Land ground, gold bottom of the lotus pools, seven tiers of railings, seven rows of netting, and seven rows of trees are described in the Amidakyo. The large number of disciples and bodhisattvas surrounding him and the artistic attempts to display measureless light originate from the Muryojuko (ten Grotenhuis 17-18). The outside rim is based on the third sutra, Kanmuryojuko, the Visualization sutra, which Japan places more importance on than other Buddhist practicing countries. The pictures on the left display the legend about the Indian queen Vaidehi who prays and meditates to the buddhas Sakyamuni and Amida, in response to her son, the heir apparent, imprisoning and trying to starve her husband. Because of her devotion, she enters Amida’s Pure Land. Her enlightenment serves as a model for other believers hoping to gain enlightenment. The pictures on the right are thirteen of the sixteen visualizations that, used correctly, will lead to rebirth in the Pure Land. The last three visualizations are further divided into nine pictures across the bottom, of the nine different ranks of birth (ten Grotenhuis 4, 16-20). The pictures on the sides are clearly meant to augment the beautiful landscape of the realm, to help the practitioner properly focus his or her mind on the Pure Land. Several patterns are repeated throughout the tapestry, emphasizing well-known beliefs or to add to the greatness of the space. The Amida Buddha appears multiple times in the Taima Mandara, in different positions. Also, the number nine appears often throughout the mandara. In addition to the ranks of birth, there are nine places in the central court to be born, some closer to the Amida than others, indicating the rank of the newborn. The forming of the mandara in sets of nine is reminiscent of the Chinese nine districts and ninefold categorizing system. The Chinese favoritism of nine worked its way into Buddhism after the late first century, appearing in many Buddhist religious art pieces, such as in the nine assemblies of the Diamond World Mandala (ten Grotenhuis 23-24 and 36). Many paintings and sculptures of the Taima Mandara have survived to this day. The major spread of duplications is due to Shoku, founder of the Seizan Pure Land School, and a disciple of Honen ("Honen's Main Disciples"). In 1229, he visited the temple where the Taima Mandara was housed and admired the greatness of the piece and the “precise presentation of the Contemplation Sutra in accordance with Shan-tao's (613-681) commentaries” ("The Taima Mandala"). Shoku ordered paint and woodblock copies of the Taima mandara to be made and distributed them far and wide ("The Taima Mandala"). The copies not only made the religious icon more widely available, but became sacred themselves. Art Historian Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis relates this story (pg 13) told to her by a Toyko National Museum curator:
	“In the late 1980s a curator from a major national museum in Japan stopped at a village called Aizubange in Fukushima prefecture on an official mission to register artworks for the central government. One of the objects that he investigated was an eighteen-century painting of a Taima mandara. But there was something unusual about this mandara. The narrow vertical rows of pictures always found at the left and right sides of a Taima mandara were gone, leaving only frayed edges. The curator was perplexed. He had never seen a painting in this condition before. Finally, the oldest man in the village, who was ninety-five years of age, came forward to solve the mystery. This old man told of events recounted by his grandfather that had taken place in the 1870s. A plague had struck the region and many people were dying. The priest of the temple in which the Taima mandara was enshrined urged the villagers to come and pluck bits of the painting off its two vertical sides and to eat the sacred icon as medicine.”
Clearly, the imagery of the Taima Mandara of the Buddhist Amida’s Western Pure Land is not just a visualization tool, but assumes the real power to unite the viewer with the divine, bringing him or her closer to enlightenment.

Works Cited
ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. University of Hawaii Press, 1999. "The Taima Mandala." Accessed May 10, 2005 <http://www12.canvas.ne.jp/horai/con-ex.htm> "Honen's Main Disciples." Jodo Shu Research Institue. Accessed May 12, 2005 <http://www.jsri.jp/English/Pure%20Land/LINEAGE/disciples.html>
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