This thesis examines the visual images of Vimalakirti, an ancient Indian lay Buddhist, painted on the walls of the Buddhist cave complex at Dunhuang, Gansu province, between 581 and 1036. The sixty-nine Vimalakirti, paintings preserved at Dunhuang are a valuable source for the exploration of historical, religious, and artistic dimensions of wall paintings and sutras. These visual images, together with other textual sources such as sutras, commentaries, and inscriptions, suggest a variety of interesting questions: Why was this theme repeatedly represented? Do the images all have the same prototype? Is there a spiritual function contained in the layout of the caves and composition of the wall paintings? Did the meaning of these images change according to historical context? Did the patrons have a political scheme in mind when commissioning these devotional artworks? While it is difficult to provide definitive answers to all these questions, this thesis will attempt to clarify them and offer preliminary answers on the basis of available visual and textual sources.

The introduction of this thesis includes an overview of basic concepts related to wall paintings, a short history of the transmission of the Vimalakirti,-nirdesa Sutra, and a review of past scholarship on Vimalakirti, paintings and related subjects. The body of the thesis is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter describes the important visual representations of Vimalakirti, before the Sui dynasty. The second chapter of the thesis will provide an introduction to representations of Vimalakirti, at Dunhuang from the late sixth to the early eleventh centuries. The third chapter examines the social functions and symbolic meanings of the Vimalakirti, paintings at Dunhuang.