The Buddhist Madonna (').

The painting reproduced in colours on the frontispiece tothis volume comes from the ruins of Yär-Khoto, at aboutten kilometres to the west of Turfan. Discovered on theI3 th of July 1905 in the course of the operations of thesecond German archseological mission in this region ofChinese Turkestan, it is at present deposited in the RoyalEthnographical Museum (Kgl. Museum für Völkerkunde)in Berlin, under no. T(urfan) II, Y, 69. In shape rectangu-lar, it measures m. 0,35 by m. 0,50, and, according toall probability, was formerly framed in bands of wovenmaterial, like a Japanese kakemono. The sanctuary, whichit had once adorned, was apparently one dedicated to Bud-dha : at least, the fairly numerous manuscripts found in itsCompany retain, under the diversity oftheir Sogdian, Tur-kish or Chinese languages and scripts, the common charac-teristic of having a Buddhist purport : we should have toexcept only some U’igurfragments, which would be Mani-chean. On the other hand, the final disintegration of thebuilding, constructed of undressed bricks, could not bemuch later than the ninth Century of our era. Only theextraordinary dryness of the climate explains how a thingso perishable should have succeeded in reaching us, beneaththe thick accumulated d£bris of bricks and dust, in a state

(1) Extract from Monutnents et metnoires publies par l'dcadimie des Inscrip-tions ei Beiles-Letires (Fondaiion Eugene Piot), vol. XVII, fase. II, 1910.

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