By Jordan Riefe
The closest one may ever come to being touched by a deity may
be at southern California's Bowers Museum when "Warriors, Tombs and
Temples: China's Enduring Legacy" opens this week showing off an ornate
case that holds a bone from the Buddha's finger.
The treasure trove, residing
at the Bowers from October 1 through March 4, was excavated from a key area
near Xian in Shansi Province, the end point of the Silk Road and capital of the
three great unification dynasties, Chin, Han and Tang.
"It is actually the cream
of the crop," grins guest curator Suzanne Cahill at the Bowers, which is
located in Santa Ana, about an hour south of Los Angeles and near the
Disneyland theme park and other tourist attractions.
Sadly, the Buddha's bone
itself didn't make the trip to the Bowers as it rarely travels. But the new
show is enough to bring out a parade of Buddhist priests to bless the case that
holds the holy relic.
"Buddha was cremated and
they harvested whatever was left," explains Bowers President Peter Keller.
The bone was found in the Famen Temple built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907
A.D.), an era of opulence and greater exposure to the outside world.
"When they build a
temple, they have what's called a founding deposit, which is a holy object they
bury under the temple," explains Cahill. "And in this case, it's
probably the holiest relic in all of Asia, which was supposedly the Buddha's
finger bone."
The finger was associated with
miracles and drew many pilgrims. Occasionally Tang emperors went to the temple,
dug up the finger and marched it around villages in elaborate processions. Upon
returning, an emperor would deposit treasures with the finger -- priceless
items of gold and silver he had especially made including the case bejeweled
with a Sri Lankan sapphire.
NEVER BEFORE SEEN
Famen Temple was sealed in 874
A.D., and the treasure sat until 1987 after a Ming Dynasty pagoda collapsed and
restorers discovered what they always suspected might be underneath: a treasure
trove including a delicately sculpted golden dragon, a bejeweled headdress and
a silver box and glassworks bearing Persian influence, items never before seen
outside of China.
Many of those items make their
world debut in the Bowers exhibit, along with a green-faced terra cotta soldier
from the Chin Dynasty (221 BC - 207 BC). While each of the 8000 soldiers like
this one is known to have individualized expressions, none is known to be
colored. Tests show the green coloring is not the result of oxidation but
appears to be paint, meant to intimidate a battlefield adversary.
The soldier and his comrades
stand guard over the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. In only
14 years he unified the country, standardized the language and connected the
scattered fragments of what is The Great Wall.
Despite his accomplishments,
Qin Shi Huang was regarded as a ruthless conqueror who betrayed allies and
ruled with an iron fist. Cahill recalls a story deriding the emperor after he
died on the battlefield.
"They brought him back,
they put a wick in his belly button and it burned for two weeks because he was
so fat living off the sufferings of the people," Cahill said.
Qin Shi Huang ordered the
construction of his tomb in 215 BC, employing some 700,000 laborers working 38
years to build a complex larger than most cities. It's been called "the
eighth wonder of the world."
While the Bowers' exhibit
many highlights of treasures unearthed at Xian, it leaves people hungry for
even greater riches yet to be discovered.
"Landing at the airport,
you see a valley containing 78 burial mounds," Keller said about his many
trips to Xian. "It's China's answer to Egypt's Valley of the Kings!"
And for the next six months, parts of it are at the Bowers.
(Editing by Bob
Tourtellotte)
Source : Reuters
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