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Academia Via Serica (계명대학교 실크로드연구원)
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Memory and Merit: The Commemorative Dimension of Central Pillar Caves in Kucha

  • Published : 2025.12.31
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Abstract

This study reexamines the function of the painted Buddhist caves of Kucha, with particular attention to the central pillar type, arguing that ancestor commemoration constituted a significant, though not exclusive, dimension of their ritual use. Through the analysis of the caves' visual program, this article proposes that they served multiple functions, including the performance of commemorative rituals linking the living and the deceased within a Buddhist framework. Material evidence-including cinerary remains, donor representations, and iconographic features such as the makara boats crossing the ocean of saṃsāra-suggests the commemorative dimension of these spaces. Kuchean practices appear to have been influenced by Indian concepts such as śrāddha and the preta, which were reinterpreted in a Buddhist context, specifically in the context of merit transfer. The gifts from the living, channeled through the monastic community and the Buddha, were believed to benefit the deceased relatives of the living donors. The findings suggest that the central pillar caves of Kucha functioned as dynamic loci where Indian funerary traditions were not merely transmitted but reimagined to serve local religious and social needs.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the participants for their active listening and thoughtful questions during my presentation with Astrid Klein, "Ancestor Worship and Burials in Kucha," at the panel Indigenous Buddhist Culture of the Tocharians of Kucha, organized by Prof. Dr. Monika Zin, at the 20th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (August 10-15, 2025, Leipzig). Their academic inspiration and constructive engagement contributed significantly to the further development of this article into a deeper study.

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