Three Hares of the Silk Road: apollinaris

apollinaris

Three Hares of the Silk Road

Apr 20, 2010 16:43

Left: Apex of the ceiling of Cave 407 at Dunhuang, c. 700, showing a trio of rabbits or hares inside a lotus motif.

One of the many mysteries of the Silk Road is how the image of three hares (and sometimes rabbits) running in a circle and sharing ears, appears in Buddhist, Christian and Islamic contexts.

What possible links can there be between Buddhist cave paintings in Dunhuang, China and Christian churches in the county of Devon in the UK, separated by 3000 miles, 500 years, and different cultures and religions? Yet an intriguing design of three rabbits chasing each other in a circle sharing three ears between them is found - in near identical form - in both places. Documenting and understanding this link is the subject of a project involving a diverse group of people from around the world.

- The Travels of the Three Rabbits: Shared Iconography Across the Silk Road

The earliest known appearance of this motif is in the Mogao caves near Dunhuang, China, which were created during the Sui to Tang dynasties (581-907 CE).

The Mogao Caves - also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas - form a system of 492 temples 25 km southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China.

Right: Three hares, Mogao Cave 205, Early/High Tang dynasty (618-781).

During the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), three-rabbits images were painted on the center of the ceilings of at least 17 caves. Typically, the circle of rabbits is surrounded by eight large lotus petals and forms the focal point of a large painted canopy covering the entire ceiling.

The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. ("Mogao Caves". UNESCO.)

Construction of the Buddhist cave shrines began in 366 CE as places to store scriptures and art. ("Silk Road - DunHuang Tun-Huang Grottoes")

The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The caves also have famous wall paintings.

The design occurs on the ceiling of at least 16 caves at Dunhuang, dating from the Sui (589-618) to the late Tang (848-907). The rabbits appear in the centre of a lotus flower but there seems to be no consistency in the direction in which they are running - some found chasing each other clockwise (as in cave 305) and others counter-clockwide (as in cave 407, shown on p. 1). An article by Ouyang Lin refers to the design in caves 305, 397, 406, 407, 420 (all Sui dynasty) and 205 (high Tang) but only talks about its liveliness and does not consider any iconographic significance or its source.

The spread of the Three Hares symbol between 600 and 1500

Images of four rabbits sharing four ears can be found in the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Guge, which thrived from the mid-10th century until its defeat in 1630. On the ceiling of Guge’s White Temple are 314 painted panels, and one of these panels has two roundels, each showing four rabbits chasing each other in a clockwise direction.

White Temple, Guge
The hares have been said to be "A hieroglyph of 'to be'." ( "Staedlin, Naomi, (November 7, 2004) The rabbits as a hieroglyph of 'to be'.")

The Three Hares also feature in 'roof bosses' (carved wooden fixtures) in the ceilings in almost 30 medieval churches in Devon, England (particularly Dartmoor), as well as churches in France and Germany, in 13th century Mongol metal work, and on a copper coin, found in Iran, dated to 1281.

Left: Three hares on an Iranian tray

Right: Der drei Hassen. Paderborn Cathedral

One theory pertaining to the spread of the motif is that it was transported across Asia and as far as the south west of England by merchants travelling the Silk Road.

Though the majority of representations of the three hares in churches occur in England and northern Germany, the early date of the surviving occurrences in China, is a strong indication that the motif travelled from East to West.

There is a good example of a roof boss at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Dartmoor, with another in the town of Tavistock on the edge of the moor. Other occurrences in England include floor tiles at Chester Cathedral, stained glass at Long Melford, Suffolk, and a ceiling in Scarborough, Yorkshire.

Left: Medieval roof boss, South Tawton, Devon

These are undeniably beautiful, yet mysterious symbols of trade between the Buddhist East - what was once Greco-India - and Christendom.

In-between, the three hares also worked their way into both Islamic and Jewish imagery.

Right: Three Hares motif, close-up, Sataniv Jewish Cemetery

In synagogues, not only do they appear among floral and animal ornaments, but they are often in a very distinguished location, directly above the Torah ark, the place where the holy scriptures repose. ("Wonnenberg, Felice Naomi "Rotating Rabbit Logo - its origins"". Felice.naomi.googlepages.com.)

Trade between East and West in Antiquity was largely concerned with products moving West and gold moving East. Along with the trade goods moved people and their ideas, often including the symbolism attached. The three hares are a pleasant mystery. as intriguing are other ideas and symbols, which we must examine.

Related Websites and Links

The Three Hares Project has documented all known occurrences of the three hares motif in Devon and the rest of Britain. Many of photographer Chris Chapman's beautiful images of the hares are included on this website.
Chasing Hares. Writer and historian James Crowden follows three historical detectives from a church in Devon to a high mountain kingdom in the Himalayas searching for the meaning and origin of the ancient symbol of the three hares. BBC Radio Program.

The Three Rabbits in China. Here are some of the earliest known images of the three hares motif from the ceilings of Buddhist caves at Dunhuang in northwest China together with related examples from Tibet and Ladakh.
The Three Rabbits and Similar Puzzles. Mathematics historian David Singmaster looks at the three hares as a geometrical puzzle and explores its relation to other body sharing images.