152 charles d. orzech and henrik h. sørensen
ācāryas and the source of the yoga teaching expounded by Vajrabodhi
and Amoghavajra, is directly concerned with the worship of a stūpa
and with the stūpa as a receptacle, in this case not of holy relics but of
a holy book. The story of the retrieval of the STTS from an “iron stūpa”
in South India is found in Amoghavajra’s “Instructions on the Gate to
the Teaching of the Secret Heart of the Great Yoga of the Scripture of
the Diamond Summit” (Jin’gangding jing da yuqie bimi shin di famen
yiguei, T. 1798.39:808a19–b28).^38 The story centers on the ritual wor-
ship of an iron stūpa with the usual circumambulation and through
special esoteric means: the chanting of mantras and homa. The entry
into the stūpa is ritually reenacted with each disciple’s initiation into
the mandala, and the stūpa and the mandala are homologized to the
body of the disciple, the body of Mahāvairocana, and to the cosmos
itself. With this in mind, we might consider the crypt of the Famen
Temple and the logic of enshrining the finger bone relic of the Buddha
in a golden stūpa wrapped in a mandala.^39
The enduring importance of stūpa and pagoda worship in the con-
text of esoteric Buddhism in China and its border regions can be
inferred from the many pagodas built in both wood and stone dating
from later periods. Both the Bai people (Baimin in Yunnan, and
the Khitans of the Liao were avid worshippers of pagodas, and excava-
tions and archaeological research in recent years have revealed many
holy objects placed inside them for purposes of empowerment.^40
(^38) Amoghavajra’s version of the story is supposedly based on Vajrabodhi’s oral
transmission. 39
Four relics were found in the crypt of the Famen pagoda and their innermost
receptacles are either coffins or stūpas. One, enshrined in a miniature gold stūpa, was
in turn surrounded by seven other containers with a variety of images, including a
variant of the Garbha mandala. Another relic was encased in a series of five boxes with
clear reference to the Vajradhātu mandala, though the relic in this case is held in a
white jade coffin. A third relic was held in a silver coffin enclosed in turn in a pagoda
and a stūpa. The final relic, in a silver coffin, was enclosed by an iron casket and a
spirit canopy. The profusion of motifs drawing on a range of Buddhist imagery and
on traditional Chinese burial imagery has resulted in a variety of interpretations, but
the presence and importance of esoteric imagery is undeniable. 40
See Sørensen, “Esoteric Buddhist Art in China, 960–1279,” “Esoteric Buddhism
in the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms (c. 800–1253),” and “Esoteric Buddhist Art Under
the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms,” in this volume; as well as Shen Hsueh-man 2001,
263–303.