<4>India's Ajanta Caves are Essence of Buddhist Art

Birthplace of Buddhist Wall Paintings Troubled by Wave of Tourists

Part of the wall painting in cave no. 17, which shows the apex of Buddhist art. Simhala, a merchant, is leading troops to annihilate monsters that have destroyed his kingdom and his father after narrowly escaping death with the help of the goddess of mercy. He is the person riding the white elephant. The animals in the painting are extremely detailed.

《 India has the seventh largest number of world heritage properties in the world, having placed 28 sites on the world heritage list - either cultural, natural or mixed - of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The government oversees more than 3,000 historical remains or monumental architecture. Almost every corner that the foot touches upon in this heritage powerhouse is a historical relic, testifying to India's past as the birthplace of civilization and major religions. That's what puzzled me. How did the Ajanta Caves become the first UNESCO world heritage site in India together with the celebrated Taj Mahal? This question continued to linger in my mind until I came face to face with 29 caves atop the cliffs of a river canyon and entered the first cave. The answer came to me surreptitiously as my eyes adjusted to the dark and could vaguely make out my surroundings. 》

Ajanta, India = Min Dong Yong, Staff Writer

"Forget the Sistine Chapel."

Bodhisattva, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, people, animals and various plants slowly revealed themselves over the soft floor lights. The 1,500-year-old wall painting mostly depicted the Jataka stories or the stories of Buddha's previous incarnations. The passage of time had dimmed the coloring, nonetheless, brilliant colors still mingled together.

The paintings were exquisite and detailed. The queen had invited a group of female musicians and dancers to dissuade the king who had decided to leave home to become a monk. A dancer was performing in the middle of musicians who were piping and drumming. She was wearing a tiara and three layers of necklaces decorated with small and large jewels. Her hands and feet were strangely bent, as if she were swinging to a dreamy rhythm. The thumb and index finger of each hand were touching while the rest of the fingers were stretched softly, reminding me of the Indian dance of today.

Many stories, irrelevant of the flow of time, ran into one another. The paintings went from left to right and suddenly overlapped with paintings going from top to bottom. There was a painting of the Siddhartha who overcame the temptations of Demon Mara when all of a sudden a man and woman in love desired each other in a voluptuous position. The goddess of mercy holding a lotus appeared, then a delegation from far away Persia were bowing. The sacred and secular worlds stood together in harmony.

I became breathless as I walked from one cave to another, past passageways outside the caves that held the humidity of the monsoon. I was soaked in a feast of paintings. A conversation the previous day with the superintending archaeologist of the Aurangabad Circle of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) came to my mind. I had asked him which caves I should definitely visit if I were short of time. "Be sure to look at number 1, 2, 16 and 17. Those murals are the apex of the Ajanta Caves," said the archaeologist V. N. Prabhakar, who is in charge of maintaining the Ajanta Caves.

I was awed by the caves. Indian photographer Benoy K Behl who in 1998 published a book of the Ajanta Cave paintings - he used only faint natural light - said the Ajanta paintings are comparable to the frescos of Europe during the Renaissance. South African novelist and Nobel laureate Nadine Godimer is said to have written these words after visiting the Ajanta Caves: "I will tell my friends to forget the Sistine Chapel and see the Ajanta Caves." The Sistine Chapel in Vatican City is home to Michelangelo's Creation of Adam and the Last Judgment.

1. Wall painting of a benevolent goddess of mercy in cave no. 1.
2. Sculpture of the Buddha in cave no. 4. Buddha's hands are in the position he is supposed to have taken during his first preaching.
3. Cave no. 19, which was reserved for prayers. The stupa in the center has an elaborate carving of the Buddha.

▼ Loses Tiger, but Discovers Treasure

In April 1819, British colonial army officer Captain John Smith was hunting tiger in the forests near Ajanta with his troops. Captain Smith, who caught a glimpse of the tiger, followed its tracks to a point where the forest disappeared and the grounds before him suddenly fell. Under the cliffs flowed the Waghora river in the shape of a horseshoe and across it stood a lava cliff. Black holes revealed themselves one after another in the middle of the cliffs.

Captain Smith and his unit crossed the river and climbed up the cliff. The first cave he entered was cave number 10. It is the oldest cave in Ajanta, carved out in the 1st century BC. What greeted the unit were bats, human skeletons, animal bones, a pile of ashes and fallen leaves. They soon found sculptures and wall paintings of elephants and lamb. What stunned them most was that the caves weren't natural, but all manmade.

Of the 29 caves, six were built during phase one and the rest during phase two. Caves 9 and 10 (chaitya, shrines) and 8, 12, 13 and 15 (viahara, monastery) were built during the early days of Buddhism or the Hinayana period from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. During phase two, King Harisena of the Vakataka Empire in central India oversaw the creation of the caves from the mid-5th century to the early 6th century AD.

First, stonemasons carrying chisels and hammers went down the cliff hanging from ropes. They chipped away from the top which would become the ceiling of the cave and down, and from the front to the back. They didn't just make empty spaces, but left rocks that were to become columns and stupas, and rooms and beds for the monks. The process would have been impossible without careful planning beforehand.

After the stonemasons carved the pillars and relief on the walls, painters came down on ropes. They made six colors from natural sources around the caves - white from kaolin and limestone, red and yellow from ocher, green from glauconite, black from soot and blue from lapis lazuli- and mixed them to paint the murals.

The Ajanta Caves are a stunning piece of work built by the best artists of the time during two periods when Buddhist culture flourished. In 1983, when the site became a UNESCO world heritage, the Ajanta Caves met four criteria of six, when only one was necessary to become a world heritage property.

▼ Preservation is Biggest Challenge for Ajanta

The Ajanta Caves were forgotten when King Harisena suddenly passed away at the end of the 5th century and Buddhism declined in favor of Hinduism. Ironically, the caves and murals remained intact because they were forgotten. But the situation has changed. According to statistics from the Archaeological Survey of India, about 390,000 tourists - 360,000 Indians and 30,000 foreigners - visited the Ajanta Caves during the one-year period to March. That was more than a thousand people each day. These tourists are one of the biggest threats to the preservation of the caves.

The ASI and the provincial government have been trying hard to preserve the site. Only natural gas buses run within 1.6 km of the caves to prevent car emissions from damaging the caves. Tourists are required to take off their shoes before entering the caves to protect the floor. "The caves leak and crack because of the weather, not the tourists," an ASI staff said.

However I saw some people getting paid for allowing camera flashes which were forbidden inside the caves. And some "progressive" critics assert that the government should limit the number of people allowed in the caves each day and make replicas of the most valuable murals and close off the originals. Under such circumstances, I wondered if the ASI had a correct perspective on things.

According to Nicole Bolomey, culture program specialist of the UNESCO Delhi office, the Ajanta Caves are "within the triangle of tourism, local district and preservation." Tourism is allowing people to appreciate mankind's treasure while the local district tries to profit from this. Someone has to stand between the two forces to preserve the historical relic. Balancing out the three points is the biggest challenge facing the Ajanta Caves.

Ajanta Caves:
Commerce prospered in Ajanta, 480 km northeast of Mumbai, since its founding 2200 years ago as it sat on a spice route. Rich merchants of Ajanta paid to build the caves for monks who passed through town when Early Buddhism flourished. The murals of Ajanta are the beginnings of Buddhist wall paintings and its tradition spread to Central Asia, then China, Korea and Japan.
Cave no. 14 not shown as it was left unfinished during the 5th century.