Seowonhwa
The Bezeklik Caves are the largest cave-temple complex in the Turfan region; over eighty caves were excavated, of which fifty-eight survive. Cutting began in the sixth century, and the most refined murals were painted during Uyghur rule in the tenth to twelfth centuries, the era best represented by the pranidhi (vow) paintings. A pranidhi painting depicts the Buddha Shakyamuni in a past life vowing to become a Buddha, making offerings to a buddha of that time and receiving a prophecy that he will one day attain enlightenment; at the center a past buddha is shown large, and beside him Shakyamuni's former incarnation appears in various guises, as king, brahmin, merchant, and others. This mural fragment is part of the "Prophecy of Dipankara Buddha" painted in Cave 15, telling how Shakyamuni, born in a past life as a brahmin, offered seven lotus blossoms to Dipankara Buddha and spread his hair over a muddy road for the buddha to tread upon, whereupon he received the prophecy that he would become a Buddha. The figure seen here is that brahmin incarnation of Shakyamuni, holding in both hands the blue flowers to be offered to Dipankara.
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