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BRIANO. RUPPERTRELIQUARY
As the focus of worship in early Buddhist monasteries,
every STUPAor pagoda had a foundation deposit, usu-
ally sealed within a stone casket or small chamber be-
neath the central mast, and hence inaccessible once the
stupa was raised above it.
Reliquary deposits were placed either in a vault
centrally located in the foundations of a pagoda or
higher up in a chamber within the structure. Such de-
posits were made at the time of construction, but
those in the foundation vault would be recovered and
reconsecrated whenever it became necessary to re-
build the structure above them (e.g., when a pagoda
built of wood burnt down and was rebuilt). Excep-
tionally, as at FAMENSI, the vault would be accessible
on other occasions.
Many deposits have been revealed through excava-
tion and conservation projects in the second half of the
twentieth century. The earliest examples, like the ear-
liest pagoda (Songyuesi ta at Dengfeng in Henan
province, dated 520) are from the Northern Wei dy-
nasty (386–534). At this date, the reliquary container
is a cubical stone chest, no more than thirty centime-
ters in height, with a chamfered stone lid. The relics or
sheli(the Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit s ́arlra) are
tiny crystalline grains, usually enclosed in a very small
glass bottle. This in turn is enclosed within other con-
tainers, and accompanied by wrappings of silk and of-
ferings of various kinds, including precious objects and
coins. Among the latter it is common to find coins
minted a decade or so earlier in Byzantium or the Sas-
sanian empire, which had come to China through trade
along the SILKROAD.In the seventh century, the shape of the reliquary
was changed into the form of a Chinese coffin, with
arched lid, higher at one end than the other, a Sini-
cized form that was to persist until the end of the twen-
tieth century, when clear plastic containers of this form
were used to reconsecrate the four relics found in the
Famensi pagoda deposit.The most recently discovered reliquary deposit was
recovered during excavation of the Leifengta, on the
shores of the West Lake in Hangzhou, the brick core
of which collapsed in 1924. Excavated in 2001, the
foundation chamber contained an iron chest (the
domed and flat-sided one-piece cover extending to the
flat square base with raised inner flange) with its con-
tents intact. The relics inside were contained in a
miniature one-story stupa of silver, dedicated by the
ruler of the eastern state of Wu-Yue in the tenth
century, set on a gilt-bronze circular tray with floral
decoration. A seated bronze image of S ́akyamuni sup-
ported on a dragon, bronze mirrors, coins, and ex-
quisite jade carvings were also found inside the iron
chest. The rulers of Wu-Yue are said to have dedicated
eighty-four thousand such miniature stupas. One reli-
quary deposit, the Wanfosi at Jinhua in Zhejiang
province, contained no fewer than twenty-one of them.Relic deposits, often dated and containing, besides
the relic grains themselves, Buddhist images and scrip-
tures; wooden, lacquered and inlaid containers; and
countless objects made of precious materials, provide
some of the most fascinating evidence of Buddhist de-
votion. In the eyes of Buddhist devotees, relics were of
equal if not greater importance than scriptures and im-
ages. The great traveler and translator XUANZANG(ca.RELIQUARY