Page 469 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China
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Gilt bronze pagoda In India, the stupa, originally a funerary monument,
was the symbol of the historical Buddha's nirvana —
Height 53.5(1973) his release from the karmic cycle of rebirth and
Tang Dynasty, seventh to eighth century CE suffering. As the repository of his relics, it was at
From the pagoda of the Famen Monastery at Fufeng, the center of monastic architecture and monastic
Shaanxi Province
worship. In China, its importance was reflected in
Famensi Museum, Fufeng, Shaanxi Province the lofty forms of multistoried pagodas, in which
only the topmost ornaments preserved the hemi-
Washington only
spherical form of the Indian original. Later exam-
468 | E A R L Y I M P E R I A L C H I N A
