位於西域絲路北道中段的龜茲古國，是中古時期聲名遐邇的佛教重鎮。當地遺存下來的石窟寺院，是我們瞭解龜茲佛教文化的主要材料。龜茲石窟的不同洞窟存在明確的功能分區和組合關係，其中禮拜窟主要有方形窟和中心柱窟兩種形制。在壁畫風格方面，早年德國學者劃定了裝飾窟壁畫的三種畫風，為學界提供了討論壁畫風格的理論框架。綜合可知，方形窟和中心柱窟大致可與第一種和第二種畫風壁畫關聯，且呈現前、後兩階段特徵。本稿集中討論裝飾第二種畫風壁畫的中心柱窟券頂部分，認為其壁畫具備與禪修實踐相關的內涵。第二種畫風洞窟券頂兩側繼承了第一種畫風券頂的山林構圖，加以形式化並固定下來，形成菱格山巒構圖。筆者在學界對券頂菱格故事題材辨識的基礎上，將菱格構圖圖像分為：菱格本生與菱格因緣組合、菱格本生與菱格千佛組合、菱格千佛三種情況，分别對應具體洞窟實例：克孜爾171 窟、森木塞姆48 窟及克孜爾110 窟。檢閱中亞出土的Yogalehrbuch 梵文本及與中亞密不可分的漢文禪經，兩相對照，推測這批圖像組合可能反映出當地特定禪觀實踐及思想潮流。三者洞窟的形制、組合方式及券頂壁畫内容雖各有差異，但券頂壁畫均具有禪定內涵的圖像內容，再結合其他洞窟券頂相似圖像，試圖證明第二種畫風洞窟券頂壁畫設計時，可能普遍考慮了壁畫輔助僧人禪定修習的功能。在「禪風盛行」的龜茲古國，禪定觀想是當地佛教僧團基礎的修行實踐，這些壁畫內容無疑是考察龜茲本地佛教實踐的有趣資料。

The ancient Kucha Kingdom on the northern area of the Silk Road was one of the most famous and influential Buddhist centers in the medieval times and the Kucha Grottoes constitute the main source for our cultural studies of Kucha. It is well acknowledged that single caves form separate groups within different functional areas, while the worship caves are chiefly divided into two types, i.e. square caves and central-pillar caves. The early investigation of German scholars had established the theory of three pictorial styles of the mural paintings of Kucha Grottoes, which is still followed by current academic discussions. It is widely accepted that the square caves and central-pillar are mainly separately related with murals of the first and the second pictorial styles, i.e., the two styles are divided into two succeeding periods. The author focuses on the discussion on the mural paintings on the vaultedcelling of the central-pillar caves, which are mostly of the second pictorial style and showcase connotations related with meditative practices of the Buddhist monks. On the vaulted-ceilings of the caves, the composition of the mountainous landscape found in the first pictorial style mural paintings is inherited and further develops into a stylized composition of rhomboid mountainous landscape during the second pictorial style period. Based on the previous identifications of the story motifs in the frame of the rhomboid mountainous landscape murals of the second style on the vaulted ceilings, the author classifies them into three mainstream arrangements of the motifs, namely, the combination of Jataka story and Avadana story, the combination of Jataka story and thousand Buddhas, as well as the pure representation of thousand Buddhas, which are evidenced by the examples of different caves, such as the Kizil Cave. 171, Simsim Cave. 48 and Kizil Cave. 110. With an inspection of the Sanskrit manuscripts called Yogalehrbuch found in the Central Asia and a series of complied texts in Chinese concerning meditation practices, it is elucidated that the arrangements of the motifs mentioned above constitutes an iconography that reflects the local meditative practices and Buddhist thoughts to some extent. Especially, the aforementioned three caves vary from each other in terms of form, group type, while their mural motifs of the vaulted ceilings also separately belong to three mainstream arrangements as stated above. However, the three cases of the vaulted ceiling murals share a common feature that they all contain some iconographical contents related with meditative practices. It is thus to be summarized that the making of the second pictorial style murals, peculiarly those on the vaulted ceilings, might have been conceived to assist the monks to practice meditation daily. In ancient Kucha Kingdom which is famous for meditation practice it is quite understandable that the meditation makes up the basic religious practices among the monastic orders, and these mural paintings provide interesting materials to peep into the local Buddhist culture.