English: This panel, perhaps the finest and best preserved of those from Dandan-oilik, is reproduced in Pl. 70-1 slightly smaller than life-size, with a close-up of the reverse in Pl. 70-2. The triple-headed deity, with one fierce grotesque head and one feminine or benign one, is ithyphallic and holds the sun and moon, a vajra and another object. He has been identified by Joanna Williams (1973, pp. 142-45) as Mahesvara, the name by which Siva appears in Khotanese texts. As such he is seated on the vehicle of Siva, the bull Nandin, here shown twice.

Siva’s presence at Khotan shows the influence of tantric Buddhism and Saivism from India: forms of Siva, which reached both Yungang (Cave 8, Northern Wei, late fifth century A.D.) and Dunhuang (Cave 285, Western Wei, early sixth century A.D.) are referred to by Williams. In the case of Cave 285 (Chugoku Sekkutsu, Tonko Makkokutsu, Vol. 2, Pl. 119), he is shown with three heads and six arms, holding aloft the sun and moon discs and seated on a blue bull. The early date at which these Siva images made their appearance in China might lead one to question whether this image, and indeed the other wooden painted plaques from the Khotan area, may not also be dated nearer the sixth century than the eighth that is generally accepted (because of numerous finds of eighth-century Chinese coins) as the terminus ante quem for both the wall paintings and the votive plaques.

The image on the reverse side (Pl. 70-2) reveals in its style the influence of Iran: the heavily bearded deity is garbed in princely costume, with a golden cap or crown, green flowered tunic, flowered undergarment and trousers, and long black boots; a dagger lies in his lap. The objects that he carries are not easily identifiable but are clearly the same as those carried by the four-armed figure presiding over the Legend of the Silk Princess (Pl. 66-2). It has been suggested that they represent a goblet, and a weaver’s comb and shuttle. Other single figures from the Khotan area that have been identified as the God of Silk or the Patron of Weaving are listed by Williams (1973, pp. 147-50).The Department of Asia would like to thank Xanthe Carmichael for her help with updating the information on the site of Dandan-Uiliq.