Buddhist Sovereign Ritual: A Case from the Dali Kingdom, 937–1254

This paper examines the imperial context and socio-political implication of a Buddhist rite “Great Consecration by the Vajra” (Skt. vajramahābhiṣeka; Ch. jingang daguanding) in the Dali kingdom, an emerging polity that flourished in present China’s Yunnan province between 937-1254. As an essential rite in coronating kings in classical and medieval India, abhiṣeka was adopted by Buddhist Esoteric tradition as an initiation rite in the medieval period. A central theme of Esoteric abhiṣeka is transmigrating Buddha’s sacredness from body to body, teacher to pupil. With Esoteric Buddhism spreading beyond India, historical references suggest that more than one East Asian ruler had received the abhiṣeka from Esoteric Buddhist masters throughout the eighth to the twelfth centuries. However, existing scholarship primarily interprets these “Buddhist anointments” as enlisting the ruler a disciple in the Esoteric school, while less considering what relevance the ritual has for their kingship.

My paper revisits this question in light of the newly released twelfth-century Esoteric ritual manuals used for performing the “Great Consecration by the Vajra” for the Dali kings, recovered from the Buddhist temple Fazang si’s archive in Yunnan. As a rare example of its kind, these Sinitic manuals with Sanskrit interpolations provide direct evidence for the operation of Esoteric abhiṣeka in the royal setting. Besides, the contemporary imperial edict from the Dali king for ordering ritual essentials and the king’s image included in the royal Buddhist painting complement the ritual texts in startling ways. Juxtaposing ritual texts with historical evidence from the ritual recipient’s perspective, I show how a secret teaching-transmission rite was transformed into a royal consecration rite in Dali’s context, leading the king to cast himself as a living Buddha, an ideal that had never been imagined in earlier Buddhist texts but crucial to the king’s self-imagery and imperial audience perception of the kingly power.