Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 21. (Budapest, 2002)
Béla KELÉNYI: „...May They Here Increase! May All Gather Together!" A Woodprint and its Inscriptions from the Mongolian Collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts, Budapest
BÉLA KELÉNYI "... MAY THEY HERE INCREASE! MAY ALL GATHER TOGETHER!" A Woodprint and Its Inscriptions from the Mongolian Collection at the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts, Budapest* What should increase, and what should gather together? Why, welfare, plenty, success, and good fortune of course. The presence of these was always, and still is, ensured for Tibetans by prayer-flags - "wind-horses" (rlung rta) - hung out everywhere. For any visitor to the Tibetan territories these coloured flags - flown from the tops of monasteries, houses, the tents of nomads, roadside shrines, and stone cairns high above mountain passes - are bound to be striking sights. The origins of the "wind-horse" do indeed stretch back to ancient times. 1 Many versions of linen-printed prayer-flags are known that can, by way of their colours, be linked to particular elements (and therefore to particular years). 2 In the middle may be depicted an enlightened personage such as Padmasambhava, or the trinity of longevity (Amitayus, Ushinishavijaya and Tara), surrounded by appropriate supplications and mantras (gzungs). 3 In its most general form the wind-horse has at its centre the "Precious Horse" (rta mchog); on its back there are blazing jewels (nor bu 'bar ba), which are girded round with prayer formulas in Sanskrit connected with different bodhisattvas. In the corners, for their part, are four characteristic animals: the Tiger, Dragon, Garuda Bird, and Lion. However, in 1970 the Hopp Museum acquired a large print from Mongolia (hereinafter: MC/1 [111. 1] that did not resemble the sole well-known form of the prayer-flag, although it did contain the a whole series of deities connected with its cult. Later, in 1976, the Hopp Museum gained possession of a print in much worse condition (hereinafter: MC/2) made using the very same woodblock. Both this and the first-mentioned work had been purchased in Ulan Bator in the 1960s. 4 A private collection in Budapest includes a version of the very same kind made using another block (hereinafter: PC); this particular version differs slightly from the first one with regard to texts and depictions. From this we may conclude that that this type of woodprint was not at all rare in Mongolia. This second version is itself very important, since the woodprints in the Museum's collection are in places difficult to read or fully illegible. For this reason I have sometimes relied on the inscriptions of the print in private hands. I shall only give a version differing from that on the MC prints when the MC prints are illegible and when the differing version on the PC print supplements or explains the MC inscriptions. As on prayer-flags, in the corners of the woodprint, too, the four animals of the windhorse are to be found. These are the "four deities of the wind-horse" (rlung rta'i lha bzhi) or the "four great gnyan spirits" (gnyan chen sde bzhi) 5 which are also called "warrior deities of the rising wind-horse" (rlung rta dar *This study (T 025755) has been sponsored by Hungary's National Foundation for Scientific Research. The author wishes to thank Dorje Karma for help in reading some of the less decipherable parts. In addition, he wishes to thank Gergely Orosz for placing texts from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Oriental Collection at his disposal, Géza Bethlenfalvy for allowing him to examine texts in his possession, and Tibor Szabó for permitting him to study a woodprint owned by him.
