Tracing “Dhāra ī Talisman” (tuoluoni fu 陀羅尼符) in East Asia

The term “dhāraṇī talisman” (tuoluoni fu 陀羅尼符) comes from a medieval illustrated talisman discovered in Dunhuang despite the absence of any actual dhāraṇī inscribed on it. Other than this instance, the term never appears in any transmitted sources. To better understand its profundity, the paper further analyzes two additional talismans: one from a pagoda constructed during the Dali Kingdom period (924–1254) in Yunnan and another piece unearthed in Turfan in the early twentieth century. Through the examination of the three objects, this study argues that the coinage of the term “dhāraṇī talisman” indicates that the medieval Chinese people had already realized the similarities in function and usage between the indigenous tradition of producing futalismans and utilizing Buddhist incantations. This observation underscores how both a native tradition and the influence of imported Buddhism together shaped talismanic culture in medieval China. Finally, the paper incorporates recent archaeological discoveries from the Korean peninsula to illustrate the broader, cross-cultural fusion of talismanic practices in the East Asian region.