MING DYNASTY, 15TH/16TH CENTURY

Compare the gilt-bronze reliquary of this type excavated in 1956 from the Hongjue Temple (now destroyed), of early Ming date (ca. 1436-1450), Niushou Shan (Oxhead Mountain), south of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, which sits surrounded by four blue and white covered jars atop a carved stone base, included in the exhibition, Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China, Seattle, July - December 1988, pp. 116-117, no. 52. The author, R.L. Thorp, remarks on the impact of 'Lamaist or Tibetan Buddhist decorative motifs on early Ming Buddhist art', and notes that the dagoba is the Himalayan form of the Indian stupa, and that the parallel development in China was the multi-storied pagoda. The Tibetan influence can be seen as early as the Liao dynasty in the similar shape of the Baitasi pagoda in Beijing built in 1092 to commemorate the ascension to the throne of the Liao emperor. which is illustrated by J. Fontein and R. Hempel, China. Korea. Japan, Propyläen Verlag Berlin, 1968, pl. 203 and p. 215.