19TH CENTURY OR LATER

The present stupa is very rare in its elaborate decoration and very large size. Few stupas of equally large size and elaborate decoration appear to have been published. One very similar stupa, also of very large size (147 cm. high) is dated to the Qianlong period (1736-1795) and is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. The Emperor Qianlong issued an edict after the death of his mother, the Empress Dowager Chongqing, to have this stupa made in her honor. It took over three months to complete and was finally housed in the East Buddha Hall of Shoukang Palace, where his mother, the Empress Dowager Chongqing, had lived. The present stupa is similar to the Palace Museum example in its size, composition, design scheme, and stand carved with Buddhist lions. Both stupas reflect the elaborate quality and high craftsmanship of Qing dynasty metalwork.

Other related gilt-bronze stupas include one smaller example (83.1 cm. high) dated to the Qing dynasty, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Buddhist Gilt Votive Objects, Taipei, 1995, pp. 76-7, no. 7; and another example (95 cm. high), dated to the Qing dynasty, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Beijing, 1998, pp. 212-3, no. 105.