The Qianqiu [千秋] image in Gansu province from the Northern Wei dynasty to the Sui dynasty was the intermediate phase from the Goumang [句芒] and Qianqiu in the central part of China to the Kalavi(n)ka in Dunhuang murals in the Tang dynasty. Those images were connected because of their roles in the imagination of afterlife rather than the graphic combination of human head and bird body. The image of Kalavi(n)ka was presented in Dunhuang murals as a component of the idea of the Western Pure Land in Chinese Buddhism. The earliest Kalavi(n)ka image in Chinese Buddhist art should be the Dunhuang-style Kalavi(n)ka in the early Tang dynasty, which was derived from multiple sources such as Indian Kinnara images, Indian Kalavi(n)ka text, Buddhist painters of Dunhuang in the Tang dynasty, the Pure Land belief in the Tang dynasty and the pre-Tang image with a human head and a bird body in central China. The Dunhuang-style Kalavi(n)ka usually had similarities in gorgeous crowns, stretched wings, slender curly tails, standing postures, playing musical instruments, dancing, and scenes of Pure Land. Meanwhile, there were unusual aspects in some Kalavi(n)ka images such as the gesture of palms putting together, the role of offering birds and gifts and the function of edge decoration. After the heyday of the Tang dynasty, Dunhuang-style Kalavi(n)ka image spread eastwards to the Central Plains and appeared in artistic media in crypts of Buddhist pagodas, Buddhist gold-and-silver (s)arīra containers and royal and aristocratic tombs.%甘肃发现的北魏至隋代千秋图像作为中原句芒、千秋向唐代敦煌壁画迦陵频伽图像转变的中介,更多源自它们在死后世界想象中的角色功能,而非仅为人首鸟身的组合形式.迦陵频伽是作为中国佛教西方净土思想的组成因素出现在敦煌壁画中的,古代中国佛教艺术中的迦陵频伽最早应为出现于唐初的"敦煌风格"迦陵频伽."敦煌风格"迦陵频伽是印度紧那罗形象、印度迦陵频伽文本、敦煌唐代佛教画工、唐代净土信仰、中原先唐人首鸟身形象等多种因素碰撞的结果."敦煌风格"迦陵频伽的共同点体现在华美头冠、伸展双翼、修长卷尾、站立姿势、乐舞角色、净土场景等方面;有些迦陵频伽在双手合十姿势、献鸟献物角色、边饰纹样功能等方面有所突破."敦煌风格"迦陵频伽在盛唐以后东进中原,出现在中原佛寺塔基地宫、佛教金棺银椁、皇室贵族墓葬等艺术载体中.
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