Miniature Votive Stupa
Unknown Artist
435 CE
Medium
steatite
Dimensions
{"overall":{"height":0.169}}
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1990.84
About this artwork
This sutra pillar, inscribed with a sacred Buddhist text, belongs to a group of miniature stupas (jingta) that were found exclusively in the Gansu corridor, Northwest China. Ranging in date between AD 426–36, some of them bear the names of the lay Buddhist donors who commissioned them. A stupa is an architectural round structure built for the veneration of Buddhist relics. Miniature stupas may have commemorated the visit of a sacred site or represented donations to religious communities and site...