Olympus in High Asia

Abstract

Sometime during the first century of the Christian era, the vanguard of a new doctrine marched out of the valleys of Kashmir in Northern India, leading a movement destined to leaven the social fabric of a greater part of Asia, and to bequeath a rich heritage of art to posterity. The Cavalcade of the Gods of Northern Buddhism was under way, and gaining momentum spread fan-like in an ever-widening arc of power. Eventually their aegis extended from the Sea of Japan to the Persian border and from Siberia to Soerabaja. Even Tibet, long isolated citadel of sorcery and the genii of earth, air and water, capitulated before this alien tide. So utterly, indeed, that Lhasa is today credited with preserving unique records of Buddhist dogma and Buddhist ritual. The Gods from High Asia might be likened to a large and well-schooled company of mummers, enacting a drama whose leitmotif was a synthesis of human experiences. Panoply and pageantry, rite and ritual, paradise and purgatory, sin and salvation—all were paraded b...