Story of Bali, Indonesia

It was assumed that many thousand years had to pass between tile appearances of each individual terrestrial Buddha. So as not to leave man during this long period completely deprived of assistance and succour in his endeavour to preserve the pure doctrine, celestial Bodhisattvas were, imagined, emanating from lays of light sent to earth by the Dhyani Buddhas. This cult of Bodhisattvas evolved into a new kind of polytheism, which inspired Buddhist art deeply wherever Mahayana prevailed.

The ancient magic conceptions, too, merged with Mahayanism. The terrestrial Bodhisattvas became magicians who could impose their will even upon gods, spirits, and demons with the aid of supernatural powers; they were also thought capable o attaining salvation at any given moment. This 'tantrism' also plays a part in Java, - understand ably so, considering that magic was one of the most important primitive Indonesian Customs.

Buddhist literature took shape in the last centuries before the Christian era, and is exceptionally rich. Equal to the Upanishads in value is the triad of the three baskets, tri pitaka: 'basket of the discipline of tile older', 'basket of the discourse, sermon', and 'basket of the higher subtleties or of the doctrine'.

Some of the most ancient patterns are the so-called 'bandji design' the basic motif of which is the swastika (bandji). The design is formed by regularly repeating this basic motif and combining the lines in a certain way (for the bandji motif, see also section on Bali).
The decoration as a whole in this pattern has grown organically fro the individual parts, each of which have a meaning of their own. The motif is primary, the geometrical segmentation of the space ancillary but the usual design was just a symmetrical interplay of lines, with certain motifs being incorporated into the geometrical figures rectangles, rhombs, circles, etc.), which were thereby formed

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