Written on a Bodhi tree leaf

Abstract

Paintings and calligraphies on dried leaves of the Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa) are a common tourist souvenir available for little money at shrines and temples across the Buddhist world (fig. 1). Painted scenes usually depict a single deity, most frequently the meditating Buddha or the ancient sages known as arhat, in thick layers of mineral pigment applied on the brittle surface of the leaf. They often survive in albums where they illustrate transcriptions of sutras in gold ink on blue paper or black ink on silk. Miniature transcriptions of scriptures are likewise written with a hard-tipped brush over the untreated, rugged leaf. The ink is sometimes mixed with glue to increase viscosity, a step required when writing on a nonabsorbent surface. For the most part, they replicate the Heart Sutra, the summa of Mah̄aȳana wisdom in a little over two hundred characters. The dried Bodhi tree leaf is not simply a support; it is as significant as the text or the image it carries (fig. 2). The painted image or the inscribed text exists in dynamic interaction with the properties and features of the material on which it appears: the leaf’s characteristic inverted-heart shape defines the composition, with figures or motifs bending or leaning to echo the leaf’s sinuous silhouette. In calligraphic transcriptions, the desiccation process brings out the leaf’s surface pattern of stems and veins, to which the inscriber responds with the choice of calligraphic script and text layout. If the act of painting conceals surface to emphasize shape, the act of inscribing activates surface, merging figure with ground, as if the text were