The Wheel-Turning Monarch Wish-Granting Jewel: Iconography and the Transmission of Cakravarticintāmaṇi Avalokiteśvara in Java (8th - 11th Century)

Ahmad Kholdun Ibnu Sholah

This paper discussed the identification of Avalokiteśvara bronze statues from Java as Cakravarticintāmaṇi. By examining the framework of interregional networks across Asia, the study aims to contextualise the transmission of the Cakravarticintāmaṇi within the development of Buddhism in the Malay-Indonesian archipelago. This art historical study builds upon the scholarly literature on the iconography of Avalokiteśvara and the style of the bronze statues from Java, as well as referring to the primary textual sources related to the conception of Cakravarticintāmaṇi. The study reveals a diverse iconographic tradition surrounding Cakravarticintāmaṇi across Maritime Asia, incorporating various motifs that align with the conception of the Wheel-Turning Monarch Wish Granting Jewel. It also gathers evidence for the transmission and cult of Cakravarticintāmaṇi across the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, brought by monks travelling the polycentric Buddhist networks. The visual representations of Cakravarticintāmaṇi bronze statues from Java can be contextualised within the 8th century transmission, which thrived and diversified around the 9th to 10th centuries. These findings add another instance of cultural transmission across the interconnected pre-modern Buddhist world.