CC0 · no rights reserved
Miniature Votive Stupa
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineMiniature Votive Stupa (小型石塔), 435 CE. China, Gansu province, Northern Wei dynasty (386-534). Steatite; overall: 16.9 cm (6 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1990.84
