A Mobile Temple: Forms and Visual Grammar of Portable Buddhist Shrines from the 3rd to the 8th Centuries Unearthed Along the Silk Road

Portable Buddhist shrines refer to small-scale mobile or assembled shrines, typically made of wood, stone, clay, and metal. They were initially used as temporary ritual sites or ornamental attachments for temples and stupas, later becoming independent objects of devotion. This art form, the origins of which can be traced to ancient India and later diverse regional traditions, has been discovered in significant quantities along the Silk Road and neighboring regions. Previously, scholarly attention centered primarily on exquisite wall shrines, stupa-shaped shrines, and stele-shaped shrines. However, when factors such as the spatial arrangement and ritual functions of mobile ritual sites are taken into account, along with the materials and techniques employed in creating Buddhist shrines, artifacts such as badge-style bronze Buddha statues, painted silk banners, and wooden panel paintings may also be classified as portable Buddhist shrines. Accordingly, portable Buddhist shrines can be divided into three forms: pedestal, hanging, and open–close or mother–child. A key reason for this expanded classification is that all such forms are functionally and stylistically linked to large-scale cave temples. Moreover, these shrines share a common visual grammar, defined by the dynamic integration of images and texts and the mutual imitation and complementarity of statue and painting. This represents a quintessential example of cross-cultural dissemination and the coexistence of local traditions in Buddhist art.