The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 4, 2023

Miniature Votive Stupa

小型石塔

AD 435

China, Gansu province, Northern Wei dynasty

(386-534)

Steatite

Overall: 16.9 cm (6 5/8 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1990.84

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

There are trigrams, three horizontal lines, broken or continuous, above each of the eight bodhisattvas in the stupa's lower section.

Description

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 sites.

Inscriptions
Inscription Translation

The middle registered is inscribed in in kaishu, regular, script calligraphy with an extract from the Ekottaragama sutra. The text includes the twelve links in the chain of existence (nidanas), said to be the object of Sakyamuni’s meditation on the night of his enlightenment, followed by a dedicatory inscription signed by four lay disciples, and an expressed hope that all sentient beings gain enlightenment.

Provenance
?-1990
(Compagnie de la Chine et des Indes, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1990-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Wilson, J. Keith. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 128 www.jstor.org
Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (1994): 270-347. Reproduced: p. 313, 315; Mentioned: pp. 313-20, 347 www.jstor.org
Perkins, Larry David, Michael J. Bennett, Oleg Grabar, Robin Poynor, Dorothy C. Wong, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie. Intimate Rituals and Personal Devotions: Spiritual Art Through the Ages. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 24, p. 25, p. 73
Exhibition history

Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).

Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994).

Intimate Rituals and Personal Devotions: Spiritual Art Through the Ages. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL (organizer) (July 16, 2000-January 14, 2001).

China through the Magnifying Glass: Masterpieces in Miniature and Detail. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 11, 2022-February 26, 2023).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.84