The Buddha's Finger Bones at Famensi and the Art of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism

Author(s): Robert H. Sharf

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 93, No. 1 (March 2011), pp. 38-59
Published by: CAA
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The Buddha's Finger Bones at Famensi and the Art of
Chinese Esoteric Buddhism
Robert H. Sharf
Buddhism is, among other things, a religion of relics.
Whether they purport to be of the founder, Sakyamuni Bud
dha, or of mythic Buddhas of the past, or of renowned saints
and local holy men, relics have been central to Buddhist
devotional life from the beginning of the tradition. The easy
mobility of relics and their astonishing fecundity (Buddhist
relics miraculously divide and reproduce) no doubt facili
tated the spread of Buddhism across Asia. In time, the dis
tinctive monuments that mark the presence of holy relics—
known variously as stupas, chaityas, chortens, pagodas, and so
on—came to dot the Asian landscape, transforming any
number of indigenous sacred sites into centers of Buddhist
influence.
Accordingly, there is a rapidly growing literature on Bud
dhist relic veneration, with contributions by historians, art
historians, anthropologists, and Buddhologists alike.1 Yet
rarely do scholars pause to consider the material appearance
of the relics themselves. This is not surprising: the relics are
typically little more than fragments of bone, teeth, crystal
lized minerals culled from the funeral pyre, or small stones,
crystals, and sundry other natural objects. The meaning of
relics would seem to lie not in their material form but in how
they were construed and treated by the faithful. Hence, anal
ysis tends to focus on reception (how a particular relic was
regarded) rather than on the conditions of production (how
a relic came to look as it does).
Consider the most famous relics in Chinese history: the
finger bones of Sakyamuni Buddha from Famensi (Dharma
Gate Monastery). Since the 1987 rediscovery of the Tang
dynasty (618-907 CE) crypt containing the relics, literally
hundreds of books and articles have appeared that examine
the history of the site and its treasures. The studies invariably
foreground the finely executed nested reliquaries, many
crafted of pure gold and silver, made to house the finger
bones. For all the scholarship on the subject, the actual relics,
despite their curious and indeed singular composition, have
received little attention. If ever there was a case to go beyond
reception and take seriously the issue of production, it would
be Famensi.
The appearance of the relics is not the only extraordi
nary feature of the Famensi finds: equally unprecedented is
the complex iconography adorning some of the nested reli
quaries—iconography associated with Chinese "Esoterism"
(mijiao). Esoteric artifacts surviving from the Tang are few
and far between, and thus, in contrast to the relics them
selves, the Esoteric motifs found on the Famensi reliquaries
have been the subject of considerable scrutiny and debate.
But much of this analysis has been skewed, I believe, by
misconceptions concerning the nature of the Esoteric tradi
tion in China.
My aim here is to take a fresh look at the Famensi relics, as
well as the Esoteric motifs on their matryoshka doll-like
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containers. I highlight some obvious but heretofore ignored
features of the materials to support a new theory concerning
their doctrinal and aesthetic significance. That these features
have been neglected in the past attests, I believe, to certain
preconceptions about the nature of Buddhist devotional ob
jects, preconceptions that preclude approaching such objects
under the rubric of "art."
Famensi and Chinese Buddhist Esoterism
On August 24, 1981, a portion of the imposing Ming dynasty
masonry pagoda at Famensi, already weakened by an earth
quake, collapsed following heavy rains (Fig. 1). Six years later,
on April 3, 1987, archaeologists excavating the foundations of
the pagoda came upon an underground crypt. Constructed
much like a traditional Chinese tomb, the crypt consists of a
steep down ramp leading to an antechamber and three inner
chambers, arranged along a north-south axis (Fig. 2). Seques
tered for centuries beneath the pagoda, the crypt managed to
escape the attention of looters; no one appears to have
breached the crypt since it was last sealed in 874 CE.2 The
archaeologists found more than four hundred objects (not
counting thousands of coins strewn about), including more
than one hundred spectacular specimens of silver and gold
metalwork, as well as rare Chinese and foreign glass, Yue
ceramic wares, tea utensils, textiles, and more. Carefully en
sconced among the densely packed contents of the crypt
were four sets of reliquaries, each containing a "finger-bone"
relic of the Buddha.
The discovery of the relics at Famensi was momentous but
not entirely unanticipated. The Famen Monastery, located
some seventy-five miles west of the old capital Chang'an
(present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi Province), was renowned
throughout medieval times as the home of a precious finger
bone of Sakyamuni Buddha. According to tradition, the relic
was a gift of the Indian Emperor Asoka (r. 273-232 BCE),
and the Famensi pagoda was constructed at Asoka's behest
to house this treasure. Legend aside, little is known of the
origins of either the monastery or its relic (s),3 but by the medi
eval period the monastery had come to enjoy a cozy relaUonship
with the court. A stela inscription found in the crypt traces
the current structure back to the Western Wei dynasty
(535-56 CE), when the magistrate Tuoba Yu opened the
derelict pagoda, made offerings to the relic, and oversaw the
restoration of the site.4 The monastery, severely damaged
during the persecution of Buddhism in the 570s, was rebuilt
during the reign of Sui Wendi (r. 581-604). In 625 the first
emperor of the Tang, Gaozu (r. 618-26), gave the monastery
the name by which it is known today, Famensi, or Dharma
Gate Monastery. Gaozu's successor, Taizong (r. 626-49), was
the first of many Tang emperors to have the relic transported
to the imperial palace for worship. He is also credited with
the construction of the underground crypt to safeguard the
 THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI 39

treasure. Several other Tang emperors paid homage to the

finger-bone relic, including Gaozong (r. 650-83), Empress
Wu Zetian (r. 690-705), and Xianzong (r. 805-20).5 Em
peror Yizong (r. 859-73) had the crypt rebuilt following the
persecution of Buddhism during the reign of Wuzong (r.
840-46), and Yizong's young successor, Xizong (r. 873-88),
had the crypt sealed for the last time in 874. Few other
Chinese Buddhist monasteries could boast this level of impe
rial support over so long a stretch of history.1'
The periodic translation of the relic to the imperial palace
was an elaborate affair accompanied by popular festivities
and outpourings of piety. The sometimes lurid spectacles
surrounding the processions are commemorated in both
painting and literature, most famously in a memorial to the
throne by the renowned litterateur Han Yu (768-824) in
819. In his memorial, Han Yu, a proponent of traditional
"Confucian" mores, castigated the emperor for promoting
superstition and condoning the barbaric worship of the Bud
dha's "decayed and rotten bone, his ill-omened and filthy
remains."7 Offended, Emperor Xianzong considered execut
ing Han Yu for the affront but settled on banishment instead.
The 1987 discovery of the crypt and its treasures captured
the attention of historians, archaeologists, art historians, and
scholars of Buddhism. The latter were particularly excited by
early reports of artifacts associated with Buddhist Esoterism, a
complex ritual culture that was introduced to China in the
eighth century by a succession of itinerant South Asian mas
ters. As medieval images and ritual objects connected with
Esoteric Buddhism are few and far between, the Famensi
finds, which included invaluable gold and silver artifacts do
nated by the imperial court, promised to contribute signifi 1 Ming dynasty pagoda after its partial collapse in 1981,
cantly to our grasp of this still poorly understood tradition. constructed 1569-1620 CE over the foundation of the Tang
Scholars typically treat "Esoteric Teachings" in China as a dynasty (618-907 CE) pagoda, Famen Monastery, Fufeng,
Shaanxi Province, China (photograph provided by the Shaanxi
manifestation of a pan-Asian tradition known as Buddhist sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan)
Tantra or Vajrayana. However, as I have argued elsewhere,
Buddhist Tantra or Vajrayana does not properly refer to a
single or self-conscious tradition so much as to a variety of
loosely related sixth- and seventh-century innovations in In
dian Buddhist practice that drew heavily on non-Buddhist visualization exercises. While the ritual and material culture
forms of image worship (Sanskrit: puja).s These innovations of these late Indian Mahayana developments spread rapidly
included the production of new scriptures, new liturgical across Asia, their effects were felt differently in Southeast
manuals, new iconography, and a new ritual technology that Asia, Tibet, China, and Japan. In some cases, they spawned
foregrounded the use of mandalas (geometric arrays of dei new traditions that developed along independent trajecto
ties), mudras (hand gestures), mantras (incantations), and ries; in other cases, they were simply absorbed into already

2 Diagram of the
underground crypt,
Famen Monastery,
Fufeng, constructed in
its current form during
the reign of Taizong
(626-49 CE), last
sealed 874 CE, a. Tang foundations
excavated 1987 b. foundations of the Ming pagoda f. middle chamber
c. tunnel
(reprinted from g. lingzhang
d. antechamber h. rear chamber
Orientations 21, no. 5
e. Asoka stupa i. hidden niche
[May 1990]: 77)

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40 ART BULLETIN MARCH 2011 VOLUME XCIII NUMBER 1
M WJgfl.6 6 jfgjjgl'
fa a a:# ii »5 S «
S
H ■ IMJi lifl'jA.-sj
Ipf-g -iaeact x?Z~;m
3 Diamond Realm Mandala (Japanese: Kongokai Mandara),
1693, ink and colors on silk, one of a pair of hanging scrolls,
each 13 ft. 5% in. X 12 ft. 5 in. (4.109 X 3.79 m). Kanjoin,
Kyoogokokuji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan (artwork in the public
domain; photograph provided by Kyoogokokuji)
dominant modes of Mahayana thought and practice. It is thus
a mistake to regard Indian Buddhist Tantra, Tibetan Vajra
yana, or Chinese or Japanese Esoterism as localized instances
of a single distinct, cohesive, or self-conscious tradition.
These new ritual developments were transmitted to Tang
China by a handful of South Asian masters, notably,
Subhakarasimha (Shanwuwei, 637-735), Vajrabodhi (Jin
gangzhi, 671-741), and Amoghavajra (Bukong, 705-774).
The rituals they promulgated were elaborate affairs that
could take weeks to perform and required considerable ma
terial resources. The reputation of the foreign masters was
such that they were able to attract the imperial and aristo
cratic patronage necessary to stage these ornate rites. This
explains, in part, why the influence of these masters was felt
mainly in the capital, Chang'an, and why their teachings
waned, at least in China, within a few generations of their
deaths. Japan is a different story: a number of well-connected
Japanese pilgrims arrived in Chang'an in the eighth century
precisely when these new practices were at the height of
fashion. Japanese clerics such as Kukai (774-835), Saicho
(767-822), and Ennin (793/4-864) received instruction in
Esoteric rites and brought them back to Japan, along with the
liturgical manuals, icons, and implements that went with
them. Kukai and Saicho went on to found new schools in
Japan, notably the Shingon and Tendai schools respectively,
that shared a distinctively "Esoteric" (Japanese: mikkyo) ap
proach to Buddhist philosophy and practice. Japanese mikkyo
had a profound influence on all later Japanese Buddhist
sects, including Hosso, Kegon, Pure Land, Zen, and Ni
chiren. Indeed, the imprint of Japanese Buddhist Esoterism
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4 Matrix Realm Mandala (Japanese: Taizokai Mandara), 1693,
ink and colors on silk, one of a pair of hanging scrolls, each
13 ft. 5% in. X 12 ft. 5 in. (4.109 X 3.79 m). Kanjoin,
Kyoogokokuji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan (artwork in the public
domain; photograph provided by Kyoogokokuji)
extended to all aspects of Japanese political culture, philos
ophy, and the arts.
In Japan the vast panoply of texts, deities, and rites associ
ated with Esoterism was organized into a single architectonic
system based on the "mandalas of the two realms."9 A man
dala is a prescribed group of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and
sundry other deities set in a geometric array on an altar or in
a painting, or conjured through the narrative of the liturgy
itself. The mandalas of the two realms, namely, those of the
Diamond Realm (Vajradhatu Mandala, Japanese: Kongokai
Mandara, Fig. 3) and the Matrix Realm (Garbhadhatu Man
dala, Japanese: Taizokai Mandara, Fig. 4), depict dozens of
major and minor deities spatially organized into various "fam
ilies" and "assemblies."1" The details of the system are too
arcane to delineate here; suffice it to say that these two
mandalas are said to represent and integrate the twin aspects
of enlightenment, variously identified as active/static, imma
nent/transcendent, compassion/wisdom, and so on.
Japanese priests and scholars had long assumed that the
two-mandala system was of Chinese, if not Indian, origin, first
brought from China to Japan by the founder of the Shingon
school, Kukai. This is not surprising, since the legitimacy of
Shingon teachings in particular, and Japanese Esoterism in
general, was predicated on their Chinese bona fides. None
theless, scholars had been stymied by the absence of any
explicit reference to the two-mandala system in Chinese
sources.11 While versions of the individual mandalas were
known in China, there was no textual, epigraphic, art histor
ical, or archaeological evidence that the Chinese were ever
aware of a two-mandala system.

£
5 Eight-container reliquary set, Tang dynasty (9th century CE), from Famen Monastery, chamber no. 3, underground crypt
(artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjin yuan). The outermost sandalwood box, in
fragmentary condition, is not illustrated.
As mentioned above, there is little evidence that what has
come to be known as Esoteric Buddhism was ever imagined as
an independent teaching or tradition in China, much less
organized into a coherent system, as was Japanese mikkyo or
Tibetan Tantra. And this has contributed to some confusion,
as scholars are wont to identify certain deities or icono
graphic forms as "Esoteric" even though the Chinese them
selves did not categorize them as such. Take, for example, the
stone sculptures from Anguosi that are frequently discussed
alongside the Famensi finds.1" Anguosi was founded in the
Tang capital in 710, not far from the imperial palace, and
the monastery, like Famensi, enjoyed close ties to the court.
In the 1950s a number of exquisite stone sculptures dating
to the third quarter of the eighth century were discovered in
a pit at the Anguosi site. The group, bearing traces of pig
ment and gold, includes images of the Buddha Ratnasam
bhava, Prajnaparamita (or Manjusri) Bodhisattva, as well as
vidyarajas ("luminous kings") such as Trailokyavijaya, Haya
grlva, and Acalanatha. Largely on the basis of iconography
alone, these images have been classified as Esoteric, which
would make the Anguosi group the largest surviving reposi
tory of Tang Esoteric sculpture. Virtually nothing is known,
however, about the ritual context or function of these images.
Scholars assume that the Anguosi group must have been
arranged in a mandala-like array on an altar intended for use
in initiatory rites such as abhiseka (Chinese: guanding, lustra
tion). Yet this assumption concerning their function is made
solely on the basis of their purported Esoteric iconography.
The reasoning is circular: a particular iconographic form is
classified as Esoteric because it was supposedly intended for
Esoteric use, but Esoteric use is presumed solely on the basis
of the iconography.18
In much the same way, a number of deities appearing in
wall paintings at Dunhuang, such as those of Cintamanicakra
Avalokitesvara, are routinely identified as Esoteric irrespec
tive of the absence of an Esoteric ritual context.14 At the same
time, depictions of the Buddha Amitayus or Sakyamuni are
almost never placed in the Esoteric category, despite the key
roles they played in Esoteric rites associated with Amogha
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THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI zQ
* ■■yX"
Vk t . f
V?. -i . I
' '♦»
: *' Y,
f. ' ■ ■
vajra.15 In the end, attempts to classify particular deities or
iconographic elements as "Esoteric" or "exoteric" are predi
cated on later Japanese sectarian developments; in China the
use of the term "Esoteric" is best reserved for a style of ritual
practice rather than a class of deities.
If we then limit our use of "Esoterism" to the new ritual
technology disseminated by Amoghavajra and his country
men, the material evidence for Tang Esoteric practice is quite
limited. A few implements and icons intended for use in
Esoteric ritual and thought to date from the Tang survive in
Japan, but many are of uncertain or contested provenance.16
As a result, prior to the Famensi discovery, Esoteric ritual
culture of the Tang had to be reconstructed largely on the
basis of surviving scriptures and ritual manuals—genres that
are prescriptive rather than descriptive in nature.
All of this explains why the first announcements that Eso
teric artifacts and evidence of the two-mandala system had
been discovered at Famensi caused such a stir. Specifically,
scholars claimed that two sets of nested reliquaries uncovered
at Famensi—the eight-container set found in the rearmost
chamber no. 3 (Fig. 5) and the five-container set uncovered
in a secret niche beneath chamber no. 3 (Fig. 6)—repre
sented the Womb and Diamond Realm Mandalas respec
tively. And the hourglass-shaped base of a kneeling bodhisat
tva holding a tray for the display of the finger bone, found in
chamber no. 2, was said to represent the doctrine of the
"unity of the two [mandala] divisions" (Japanese: ryobufuni);
the base's upper dome is supposed to depict the Diamond
Realm and the lower dome the Womb Realm (Fig. 7). This
two-mandala reading gained wide currency: it was fore
grounded in the museum at Famensi, where an entire hall is
devoted to explicating the Famensi materials in terms of the
two mandalas. It also made its way into virtually every major
Chinese publication on the Famensi finds, including the
official two-volume archaeological report that appeared in
2007.17
There is no question that iconography associated with the
Vajradhatu Mandala is in evidence at Famensi, notably, on
the forty-five-deity case, which is part of the nested five
42 ART BULLETIN MARCH 2011 VOLUME XCIII NUMBER 1
7 Kneeling bodhisattva on lotus-shaped dais, inscribed 871 CE,
from Famen Monastery, chamber no. 2, underground crypt,
gilt silver, silver, and pearls, height 15V& in. (38.5 cm) with
dais, 1926 grams (artwork in the public domain; photograph
provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan)
container reliquary set found in the secret niche (Fig. 8). The
iconography on the base of the kneeling bodhisattva also
draws on the Vajradhatu Mandala (Fig. 7). It proves more
difficult, however, to find unambiguous evidence of the Gar
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6 Five-container reliquary set, Tang
dynasty (9th century CE), from Famen
Monastery, secret niche, underground
crypt (artwork in the public domain;
photograph provided by the Shaanxi
sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan). The third
sandalwood box, in fragmentary
condition, is not illustrated.
bhadhatu Mandala in the crypt, and the claim that the doc
trine of the "unity of the two worlds" is expressed on the base
of the kneeling bodhisattva is convoluted and, I believe,
unconvincing. When viewed without recourse to later Japa
nese tradition, Famensi provides no compelling new evi
dence that Tang clerics were aware of a two-mandala sys
tem—or, indeed, of any Esoteric system at all.18
The tendency to view the Esoteric motifs at Famensi
through the lens of later Japanese two-mandala theory has
skewed analysis of the materials. But there is another, per
haps more subtle, problem with the studies of Famensi "Eso
terism" to date, namely, the manner in which scholars osten
sibly deduce "inner" beliefs and dispositions on the basis of
"outer" material culture and ritual practice. And this requires
another brief excursus on hermeneutic issues.
Ritual Practice, Material Culture, and Belief
As the Tang government managed to open and secure the
Central Asian silk routes, a multitude of new and exotic
South Asian Buddhist deities and ritual practices made their
way to the Chinese capital. Despite the influence of these new
practices among the ecclesiastical elite and their patrons in
the capital, there is little evidence that these rites and the
material culture that came with them were imagined as a
distinct teaching. It is, therefore, misleading to construe
them as the Chinese counterparts of Tibetan Tantra or Jap
anese Shingon, for example, both of which are later devel
opments. The ritual texts and practices disseminated by
Subhakarasimha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra are better
approached as a new technology (techne) that was seen as
complementing and supplementing, rather than supersed
ing, the dominant Mahayana traditions of the time.
Some have responded skeptically, saying, in brief, that too
much is being made of a terminological quibble. While we
should be cautious, lest we view Chinese Esoterism through
the lens of the later Japanese or Tibetan traditions, this does
not mean that Vajrayana did not flourish for a brief but
important moment in the Tang, or that it did not have a
lasting legacy in China.19 In the final analysis, claim the
critics, it does not matter what we call it as long as we can
agree it existed; even if we reject the two-mandala reading of

8 Forty-five-deity reliquary, back view,
inscribed 871 CE, from the five
container reliquary set (Fig. 6), Famen
Monastery, secret niche, underground
crypt, gilt silver, 6V2 X 6% X 6% in.
(16.5 X 17.2 X 17.2 cm), 1610 grams.
Famen Monastery (artwork in the
public domain; photograph provided
by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu
yuan)
Famensi, the crypt still provides evidence that Indian Vaj
rayana practices were current in Tang China. But this criti
cism misses the point. The way we frame the subject of our
study, the questions we ask of the material, and the evidence
we adduce are all determined by the categories we use. Our
reading of the Esoteric or Vajrayana materials at Famensi will
depend on what we mean by "Esoterism" or "Vajrayana."
The problem, in part, is the continued influence of time
worn "Protestant" presuppositions in the field, despite nearly
three decades of sustained critique.20 The thrust of the cri
tique is that, in delineating their object of study, scholars of
religion tend to foreground doctrine, belief, and inner expe
rience at the expense of lived practice, ritual performance,
and material culture. And those scholars who turn to the
more embodied, performative, and material aspects of reli
gion continue to view them as representations or enactments
of ideology, or as means to instill and propagate faith—
hence the tendency to read ritual technology as religious
theology. In effect, scholars are unwitting captives of a Car
tesian metaphysic, wherein they can envision two and only
two options: either religious adherents view the outward (ma
terial) dimensions of religion as referencing inner (immate
rial) dispositions, beliefs, and doctrines; or the adherents are
literalists who naively believe that divinity can be coextensive
with material forms. In this latter case, the adherents are
rendered "idolaters" in the grip of a category mistake (that is,
they are incapable of clearly distinguishing the immaterial
from the material), and this leads them to impute vitality to
inanimate objects and magical efficacy to empty ritual.21
Scholars of Buddhism and Buddhist art now readily con
cede that modernist presuppositions can impede our under
standing of premodern Buddhism. We appreciate that, for
much of Asian history, "Buddhism" was associated not so
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THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI 43
much with inner faith and dispositions as with a range of
somatic practices and technologies that revolved around con
secrated images, objects, altars, and other materiel. We also
recognize that while Buddhists imputed potency to material
forms, they were not necessarily idolaters in the biblical sense
of the word. Be that as it may, it is not always obvious how to
proceed. Can we say something about embodiment, ritual
action, vivified icons, and the other corporeal dimensions of
Buddhism without immediately transcribing such phenom
ena into textbook accounts of inner meanings and beliefs?
This is not to say that scholars have ignored the ritual and
material dimensions of the Famensi site. Some scholars have
argued, for example, that the contents and layout of chamber
no. 3 constitute a mandala (Fig. 9), and thus it may have been
a site for Esoteric rituals such as abhiseka, although this inter
pretation has been subject to criticism.2"' In the end, however,
attempts to move from mute object to lived culture have been
halting at best.23
The Buddha's Finger Bones
Nowhere is the ineluctable materiality of a religious object
more apparent than in the finger-bone relics themselves.
Like Han Yu before them, modern scholars presume that
medieval Buddhists regarded these objects—arguably the
most hallowed objects in all of Chinese Buddhist history—as
the corporeal remains of the historical Buddha. In other
words, scholars assume those who venerated the finger bones
were literalists; they took the relics and their Asokan origin
myth at face value.
This establishes a seemingly insuperable gap between the
world of the medieval clerics and ourselves. Few modern
scholars would lend credence to the claim that the Famensi
relics are in fact the corporeal remains of the historical
44 art bulletin march 2011 volume xciii number 1
Buddha presented to the Chinese court as a gift from the
Indian Emperor Asoka in the third century BCE. At the same
time, the provenance of the relics and their composition have
received little scholarly attention. This may be due to antici
pated difficulties of research in this area; it is no easy job to
trace the origin of a famous relic when those originally
responsible for "discovering" it deliberately covered their
tracks. But I think there is a more profound reason for this
lack of interest in the material relics themselves, namely, the
assumption that the meaning and significance of the bones—
their authenticity, sanctity, and power—reside solely in the
minds of the faithful.24 Rather than focus on the bones
themselves, which are deemed of little intrinsic scholarly
interest, all eyes have been on their elaborately crafted en
closures.
Yet this is to ignore the single most conspicuous feature of
the Famensi relics. Most Buddhist sarira (relics of a buddha
or Buddhist saint) are natural objects of one sort or another,
whether animal or mineral. But the four finger-bone relics
found at Famensi are patent fabrications—they were quite ob
viously fashioned by human hands. And this raises the possi
bility that the clerics who managed the crypt may not have
been the crude literalists that some would suppose. In other
words, they may not have regarded the Famensi relics as the
corporeal remains of a historical personage in any simple
sense.
Let us review the evidence. First, four very similar relics,
which range in size from Wz to 1% inches (3.7 to 4.1 centi
meters) in height, were found at the site: two formed out of
jade (those in chamber nos. 2 and 3, Figs. 10,11) and two out
of bone (those in chamber no. 1 and in the secret niche, Figs.
12, 13).25 As far as I am aware, the historical record does not
acknowledge more than one finger-bone relic at Famensi,
and the existence of four very similar relics was certainly not
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9 Chamber no. 3, as found during
excavation, Tang dynasty (618-907
CE), Famen Monastery, underground
crypt (photograph provided by the
Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan)
common knowledge. Moreover, the layout and furnishings of
the crypt do not indicate which of the four, if any, was
considered the "authentic" Asokan relic by those who oversaw
the crypt. Each appears to have been treated as a bona fide
sarfra, securely ensconced in a reliquary, with each reliquary
placed in its own sealed chamber.26
Some scholars have suggested that the bone relic found in
the secret niche below chamber no. 3 was the true relic or
"spirit bone" (linggu), while the others were decoys or
"shadow bones" (yinggu).27 Presumably, one of the decoys
would have been used in processions to the capital, in this
way preventing anything untoward from happening to the
invaluable true relic, and no one outside of a handful of
Famensi clerics would have been any the wiser. This is a
reasonable conjecture, but a conjecture nonetheless. Curi
ously, the stela inscription titled "Delivering the True Body to
Qiyang" found in the antechamber of the crypt uses the term
"shadow bone" for a copy made intentionally to be destroyed
during the Huichang persecution. If anything, the use of the
term "true body" in inscriptions found at the site would seem
to point to the relic found in the eight-container set in
chamber no. 3. In the end, there is no material or epigraphic
evidence that the relic in the secret niche was regarded as
more "genuine" than the others, apart from its placement in
the niche itself.
As for the physical composition of the relics, none is an
actual finger phalange.28 The four relics are all similar in
appearance: each is a polished hollow tube about 1V2 inches
(4 centimeters) high. To state the obvious, real finger bones
do not resemble hollow cylinders: the bulbous joints or ex
tremities on the ends of real phalanges are composed of
smooth articular cartilage that seals in the softer cancellous
bone on the inside. Even after the passage of many centuries,
a finger phalange does not end up resembling a hollow tube.

10 Finger-bone relic of the Buddha, from Famen Monastery,
chamber no. 2, underground crypt, jade, maximum height
1% in. (4.1 cm), maximum width % in. (1.96 cm), 13.5 grams.
Famen Monastery (artwork in the public domain; photograph
provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan)
Finally, one of the relics—the one made of jade in chamber
no. 3, believed to have been the last to travel to the imperial
palace—has the seven stars of the Northern Dipper (Beidou,
Ursa Major, Fig. 14) etched in black on the inside surface.
Again, real finger bones do not have asterisms etched on
their inner surfaces.29 Nor does this denote, even obliquely,
any of the physical characteristics of a buddha enumerated in
canonical lists.10 All of this—the multiple bones, the fact that
two are modeled in jade, their unnatural tubular structure,
and the representation of the Northern Dipper on one of
them—speaks to their intentional and conspicuous contriv
ance.
The Famensi finger bones are not the only known case of
Buddha relics that show signs of human tweaking. As others
have noted, pious Buddhists would not have expected the
corporeal remains of the Buddha to resemble those of com
mon folk, and thus prodigiously large or oddly colored relics
are not uncommon.11 The tooth relic discovered in 1974 in
the Asoka Pagoda at Haiqingsi (Lianyungang), for example,
is both large (it comes from a horse) and appears to have
been painted green.32 Oversize Buddha tooth relics made of
elephant teeth have also been found.33 But nothing uncov
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THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI 45
11 Finger-bone relic of the Buddha, from Famen Monastery,
chamber no. 3, underground crypt, white jade, maximum
height l9Ae in. (4.03 cm), maximum width 3A in. (2.01 cm),
16.2 grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in the public domain;
photograph provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu
yuan)
ered to date displays anything close to the bold artifice of the
Famensi fingers. This could not have been lost on the clerics
who oversaw the contents of the crypt.
To the literal-minded, such artifice suggests an element of
bad faith, if not subterfuge, which may explain why scholars
have avoided the topic; there is no way to recover the facts or
intentions behind the apparent deception. Or perhaps schol
ars feel that Buddhist satfra, being considered miraculous or
otherworldly substances, should be exempt from our secular
ist expectations and norms. They are best regarded from the
viewpoint of the "natives": as objects of religious faith.34 So
again we seem to be left with two choices: the clerics in
charge were either duplicitous or naive.
It is unlikely, however, that the Tang clerics were either
Cartesian dualists or Protestant literalists. Educated clerics in
the Tang would have been familiar with the hundreds of
Mahayana scriptures and commentaries that repeatedly af
firm the emptiness of the Buddha. These texts repeat ad
nauseam the dictum that the real Buddha should not be
sought in the manifest transformation or emanation body
(huashen, yingshen, fensheri), but in the unmediated dharma
body (fashen, Sanskrit: dharmakaya). "Buddha," according to
this dominant strand of Mahayana thought, has the same
referent as the "absolute" (zhenru, ruru, Sanskrit: tathata)?h
In China, the most celebrated expression of this teaching is
found in the Vimalakirtinirdesa-sutra, in which the sage Vi
46 ART BULLETIN MARCH 2011 VOLUME XCIII NUMBER 1

13 Finger-bone relic of the Buddha, from Famen Monastery,

12 Finger-bone relic of the Buddha, from Famen Monastery,
chamber no. 1, underground crypt, bone (undetermined
origin), maximum height IV2 in. (3.7 cm), maximum width
% in. (2.21 cm), 7.8 grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in the
public domain; photograph provided by the Shaanxi sheng
kaogu yanjiu yuan)
secret niche under chamber no. 3, underground crypt, bone
(undetermined origin), maximum height lg/i6 in. (3.94 cm),
maximum width 34 in. (2.05 cm), 9 grams. Famen Monastery
(artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by the
Shaanxi kaogu yanjiu yuan)

malaklrti remains silent on being asked to expound on the

meaning of nonduality. Yet, while the Chinese exalted the
virtues of silence, they also delighted in kataphatic expres
sions of this absolute.30 What better expression of the "true
body" (dharmakaya) of the Buddha than a relic whose center
is empty and whose compass is the endre universe? Note how
the Northern Dipper etched on the relic's curved interior
surface renders that surface the canopy of heaven: the nec
essarily contingent and constructed relic is the empty cos
mos—the dharma body itself.
There is more: the dharma body is commonly identified
with the world "as such" (ruru, Sanskrit: tathata), in contrast
with the world apprehended by the defiled mind. This
dharma body allows of no mediation, and this doctrine un
derwrites the claim found in Mahayana sources that the
historical Buddha did not actually utter a word during his
14 Detail of Fig. 11 showing the seven stars of the Northern
teaching career.3' All teachings associated with the Buddha
Dipper etched on the hollow interior of the finger-bone relic
are considered "skillful means" (Sanskrit: upaya)\ in an oft of the Buddha. Famen Monastery (artwork in the public
used metaphor, they are fingers pointing to the moon. The domain; photograph provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu
wise student looks not at the finger but at where the finger is yanjiu yuan)

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pointing. At the same time, various Mahayana scriptures,
including many of those most popular in China (notably, the
Heart Sutra, Diamond Sutra, and other Perfection of Wisdom
scriptures), claim that there is no moon apart from the
finger. In other words, the moon is precisely the finger apprehended
as contingent and empty. Again, what better expression of this
idea than a Buddha relic in the form of an empty finger?
Thus, although the clerics of Famensi may have recognized
the finger-bone relic as a contrivance or artifice, this did not
preclude their regarding it, at one and the same time, as an
authentic relic of the Buddha.
The term used to refer to the relic in Famensi crypt in
scriptions is the "true body," a term most often associated
with the transcendent "dharma body." Eugene Wang has
suggested that this term entails a conundrum; in one sense,
the only true or authentic body of a Buddha can be no body
at all.38 In my reading, however, the multivalent expression
"true body" deftly captures the dialectical or "self-emptying"
logic exhibited in the very design of the finger-bone relic.
The term "true body," like the relic itself, must be understood
as sublimely ironic.
In short, the Famensi finger-bone relics might be ap
proached as sophisticated works of art. And this means com
ing to appreciate the creative, aesthetic, and playful dimen
sions of the crypt and its treasures.
But Is It Art?
I am aware, of course, that the term "art" is polemically
charged, and that attempts to define or delimit it have been
contentious and arguably unproductive to date. Some theo
rists have insisted that all efforts to stipulate a set of intrinsic
properties common to everything we call "art" are fundamen
tally misguided,39 while others maintain that conceptual clar
ity is nonetheless possible through a shift in focus to extrinsic
factors such as the way an artifact is culturally, socially, and
institutionally constituted.40 I have no intention of wading
into these turbid waters. I would simply note that first, the
relics qualify as art according to most any of the formal
definitions currently in circulation; and second, considering
the relics under the rubric of "art" brings into view neglected
aspects of their conception and design.
For example, the expressive elements in the design of the
relics—elements that serve to arouse and engage the viewer's
aesthetic, affective, and intellectual interest—resist reduction
to utilitarian, ceremonial, or ritual function.41 (This nonin
strumental modality is commonly associated with "art" in the
rigorous sense of the term.) That the relics and their enclo
sures simultaneously played a pivotal role in a religious econ
omy in and of itself does not detract from this expressive
dimension.4"
Note also that the Famensi relics are about something: they
have something to say. And this is registered as the presence
or trace of agency.43 But what is expressed is not explicit; the
audience is presented with a gap to be traversed, an ellipsis to
be filled in. In the case of the Famensi relics, this ellipsis
involves, in part, the gap between one's expectations of what
a Buddha relic might look like and the odd guise of the
tubular "finger bones." The finger bones are both "real" and
"not real" at the same time. Or rather, they play on the notion
of a real or authentic relic. The aesthetic interest lies, in part,
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THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI
in negotiating this gap through forging the necessary percep
tual, conceptual, and emotional connections.44
Finally, the Famensi relics were designed, at least in part, to
be appreciated by an educated audience versed in the sub
tleties of Buddhist doctrine and literature, as well as in the
expressive possibilities of Buddhist visual and material cul
ture. This audience was no doubt tiny, comprising an elite
group of clerics and patrons who designed and supervised
Buddhist architectural and artistic projects.45 In medieval
China this community would not have included the pious
multitudes, who regarded the Famensi relics as holy objects
imbued with supernatural powers. These masses may not
have been in a position to view the relics directly, much less
appreciate their aesthetic and conceptual elegance.46
This is not to say that medieval Chinese aesthetes would
have classified the relics as "art." But then medieval Chinese
critical writings on the subject were restricted largely to lite
rati pursuits such as calligraphy and painting and excluded
"crafts" such as sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts,
not to mention Buddhist devotional objects. This inhibited
the emergence of a more catholic notion of art in the mod
ern sense of the word.47
As a cross-cultural or anthropological category, "art" is
admittedly a fraught term, but no more so than "religion,"
"ritual," "play," or "humor." Such categories remain heuristi
cally useful, if not essential, for comparative and historical
work. Drawing attention to the artful aspects of the Famensi
relics opens up new interpretative and analytic avenues. We
are encouraged to move beyond considerations of reception
(politics, patronage, prestige, function) to those of cre
ation—to the form, materiality, and sensuous appearance of
the relics, and to the traces of agency and intentionality they
exhibit.
The Eight-Container Reliquary Set
The set of eight nested containers found in chamber no. 3 is
the most conceptually complex of all the objects recovered
from the crypt, and it is also the one that has garnered
the most attention to date (Fig. 5). The set, which encases the
white jade relic with the Northern Dipper etched on the
inside surface, was conceived and fashioned as an integrated
whole, representing a single and singular artistic vision. This
differentiates it from the five-container set found in the secret
niche (Fig. 6), which consists of containers dating to at least
two different periods.48 While a few reliquary sets found at
other sites may also have been designed of a piece, such as
the nested boxes discovered atjingzhisi (Ding County, Hebei
Province), nothing unearthed to date approaches the Fa
mensi eight-container set in terms of compositional sophisti
cation and complexity.49
The eight-container set was placed toward the rear of
chamber no. 3 (Fig. 9).50 Situated at the north end of the
vault, slightly in front of and above the small secret niche
below, it was arguably the focal point of the entire crypt at the
time it was last sealed. Working from the inside out, the
innermost container, which held the white jade relic, is fash
ioned of gold in the shape of a small pagoda with doors on all
four sides, topped with a lotus bud (Fig. 15). A small silver
post extends up from the center of the base to hold the relic
in place. The second container is made of a soft alabasterlike
 ART BULLETIN MARCH 2011 VOLUME XCIII NUMBER

16 Reliquary in the shape of a lidded box, Tang dynasty (9th

century CE), second of eight containers (Fig. 5), from Famen
Monastery, underground crypt, chamber no. 3, stone with precious
stones and pearls, 4% X 3V4 X 3V4 in. (10.6 X 8.2 X 8.2 cm),
15 Reliquary in the shape of a pagoda, Tang dynasty (9th 1020 grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in the public domain;
century CE), first (innermost) of eight containers (Fig. 5), photograph provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan)
from Famen Monastery, underground crypt, chamber no. 3,
gold with silver post, 2% X 1% X 1% in. (7.2 X 4.8 X
4.8 cm), 184 grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in the public
domain; photograph provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu
yanjiu yuan)

stone and is decorated with red and green precious stones

and pearls along with carvings of lotus blossoms and birds
(Fig. 16). The third container is of pure gold and, like the
second, is adorned with precious stones, pearls, and lotus
blossom motifs (Fig. 17). The fourth container, also pure
gold, features two flying phoenixes on the lid (Fig. 18). The
complex iconography delicately chased on its four sides in
cludes a six-armed Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara on the
front, a Buddha, possibly Vairocana, on the back, the Medi
cine Buddha on the left, and Sakyamuni on the right. Each
deity is surrounded by his celestial assembly. The fifth con
tainer is of silver and gilt silver, with Sakyamuni inscribed on
the front (Fig. 19), Manjusri mounted on a lion on the left,
Samantabhadra on an elephant on the right, and a haloed
Buddha on the back. Again, each deity is surrounded by an
assembly. The sixth container is a plain silver box with no
images, inscriptions, or marks of any kind (Fig. 20). The
seventh container is made of silver and gilt silver, with a pair
of dragons circling a pearl chased on the lid (Fig. 21). The
17 Reliquary in the shape of a lidded box, Tang dynasty (9th
four sides depict the four heavenly kings (tianwang, Sanskrit:
century CE), third of eight containers (Fig. 5), from Famen
lokapala), with a frontal view of Vaisravana on the front. Each
Monastery, underground crypt, chamber no. 3, gold with precious
of the other three heavenly kings—Virtipaksa, Virudhaka, stones and pearls, 5V4 X 4M> X AVi in. (13.3 X 11.3 X 11.3 cm),
and Dhrtarastra—is turned to the left, surrounded by his assem 875 grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in the public domain;
bly, forming a procession behind Vaisravana. The eighth box is photograph provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan)

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 THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI

18 Reliquary in the shape of a lidded

box, showing Cintamanicakra
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and
assembly on the front face, Tang
dynasty (9th century CE), fourth of
eight containers (Fig. 5), from Famen
Monastery, underground crypt,
chamber no. 3, gold, 55/i6 X 5Yi6 X
55/ie in. (13.5 X 13.5 X 13.5 cm), 988
grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in
the public domain; photograph
provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu
yanjiu yuan)

19 Reliquary in the shape of a lidded

box, showing Sakyamuni Buddha and
assembly on the front face, Tang
dynasty (9th century CE), fifth of eight
containers (Fig. 5), from Famen
Monastery, underground crypt,
chamber no. 3, gilt silver, 6V4 X 6V4 X
6<A in. (15.8 X 15.8 X 15.8 cm), 1683
grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in
the public domain; photograph
provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu
yanjiu yuan)

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50 ART BULLETIN MARCH 2011 VOLUME XCIII NUMBER 1
made of sandalwood with silver hinges, "trimmed with gold and
framed with silver," according to the inventory.81 This outer
most container is now in pieces, but it is purported to have
featured, among other things, depictions of Sakyamuni preach
ing and an Amitabha paradise scene.52
Recall that there is nothing particularly original or "Eso
teric" about the use of nested reliquaries. A number of nested
sets have come to light of late, including several from the
Tang and earlier.53 Such sets came in many sizes and shapes:
individual containers in the shape of pagodas, square boxes
(often with chamfered lids), and traditional Chinese coffins
are most common, all of which are in evidence at Famensi. It
is also common to find the individual containers of a single
set fashioned in different media. The outermost containers
are often of stone or iron (presumably to protect the con
tents), while the inner containers might be made of wood,
gold, silver, jade, alabaster, and so on.54
The Famensi eight-container set stands apart from other
known reliquary sets in its iconographic complexity and con
ceptual unity. Although the Esoteric motifs have drawn con
siderable attention, the set's overall cohesion is equally note
worthy; it would seem to bespeak a unified creative vision.
Scholars who have approached the eight-container set as a
conceptual whole are, however, selective in their focus, and
they tend to ignore altogether the sixth container in the
series—the unadorned silver box.55 In fact, the sixth con
tainer—the plain silver box—is crucial to reconstructing the
inspiration behind the set's design. To understand how this is
so will require another brief digression, this time into the
nature of Esoteric liturgies and ritual paraphernalia.
Buddhist Altar Rites
Esoteric rites, such as those brought to the capital by Amo
ghavajra and Subhakarasimha, are designed to harness pow
ers associated with a myriad of divine beings. The elaborate
ritual technology involves the construction of complex altars
and the use of hundreds of intricate mudras (hand gestures),
cryptic mantras (incantations), vivified images, and conse
crated implements. The construction and use of altars or
platforms (tan tj) are central to the enterprise, as is evident
from a common Chinese term for this liturgical genre,
namely, "altar method" (tanfa $§.]£.)■
The Chinese word tan is used for a variety of structures that
modern scholars tend to group into two broad categories.
First, there are tan employed in ordination or precept rites
(jietan , tanchang tfjiJI), whether lay bodhisattva precepts
or full monastic ordinations. Second, there are tan used in
making ritual offerings or sacrifices to a deity, a category that
includes virtually all rituals deemed "Esoteric." (Tan is often
used to render the Sanskrit word mandala, although the
lexical issues are too complex to do them justice here.)
Scholars of Chinese Buddhism tend to translate tan as "plat
form" in the ordination context, and as "altar" in the context
of offerings to deities. In India, these two kinds of rites may
have required two distinct kinds of physical structures: in the
case of ordination rituals, the precincts need not have been
raised off the ground, since only a clearly bounded area
(Sanskrit: simabandha, simamandala, Chinese: jiechang ^ij§)
that would not be transgressed during the ceremony was
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required. (Such spaces could be simply delineated by stone
markers, a railing, and so on; a boat could be used as well,
since its boundaries were clearly marked and the space pro
tected.) Altars or mandalas used in the worship of deities, on
the other hand, were typically raised platforms, often consist
ing of several stepped levels.
Some traditional Chinese exegetes, notably Daoxuan
(596-667), recognized the Chinese lexical confusion. They
distinguish bounded areas from raised platforms by reserving
the term chang ij§, or "area," for the former, and tan, or
"platform," for the latter.5*3 But such scholastic labors had
little impact on popular usage, and the Chinese continued to
use the term tan—a Chinese word of considerable antiquity
that clearly denoted a raised platform—either alone or in
two-character compounds for a variety of structures, includ
ing both ordination platforms and worship altars.57 It appears
that the Chinese did not make a clear distinction between the
divine technology drawn on to secure and consummate an
ordination ritual and the divine technology that we associate
with invocation rites. In both cases, specially constituted and
consecrated altars were used to secure a precinct and prevent
intrusions from things both mundane and supermundane.58
To understand the altar technology connected more spe
cifically with Tang Esoterism, we need to turn briefly to the
liturgical manuals themselves.59 These manuals prescribe the
performance of invocation rites that summon a powerful
bodhisattva or buddha, along with his minions, into the
presence of the worshiper. When the deity and his retinue
arrive, the worshiper makes oblations and partakes in the
deity's grace and power, utilizing said power for both worldly
and soteriological ends. These rites are structured, at least on
the surface, as classical Vedic sacrifices, wherein the officiant
uses the power of mantra to coerce the presence of a god (or
gods) and is then granted boons and powers in return for
offerings. The overt similarity to Vedic sacrifice was not lost
on Chinese Buddhist exegetes such as Yixing (683-727), who
referred to the Buddhist fire ritual as "Buddhist Veda."60
All of these rituals share a common narrative logic: the
officiant enacts a drama in which he plays the part of the
host, while the deity is the honored guest who is invited,
welcomed, entertained, feted, and then sent on his way. This
largely routinized dramatic structure is plainly seen in a
variety of influential manuals translated and transmitted by
Amoghavajra, including the Ritual Instructions for Discerning
and Making Offerings to Immeasurable Life Tathagata,61 Ritual
Instructions for the Invocation of Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara
Bodhisattva,62 and the Yoga Practice for Cintamanicakra Avalo
kitesvara Bodhisattva,63 I mention these particular works as
they are cited by Kukai as influential in the creation of his
own ritual manuals, and scholars believe that their status in
Japan testifies to their significance in China.64 That Cinta
manicakra Avalokitesvara, who appears as the central deity
(benzun) in a number of these manuals, is also the central
deity of the eight-container set at Famensi (Fig. 18) seems to
support this claim.'"
The ritual narrative described in these manuals opens with
a series of rites that purify and "empower" (jiachi, Sanskrit:
adhisthana) the practitioner, the implements, and the pre
cincts. Once the preliminary purifications and recitations are
complete, the practitioner moves to a set of rites known

collectively as "securing (or binding) the domain" (jiejie).
This liturgical module, which transforms the sanctuary and
altar into a fortified and impregnable space in which to
ensconce and fete the deity, turns out to be critical to our
understanding of the Famensi eight-container set. While I
base the outline below on the Ritual Instructions for the Invo
cation of Cintamanicakra Avalokitsvara Bodhisattva, the same
narrative structure can be found in virtually all Esoteric man
uals dating to the Tang.
Each of the individual ritual units that compose the "se
curing the domain" module involves the performance of a
mudra, mantra, and imaginative visualization (xiang).m The
first in the sequence is "securing the ground with an adaman
tine (Sanskrit: vajra) spike \Jie dijie jingang jue]."67 Here, a
mudra-mantra combination is used to drive a flaming ada
mantine spike down through the center of the earth to the
oceans below, transforming the practitioner's seat into an
immovable adamantine throne {jingang zuo) that cannot be
disturbed by demons or other malevolent forces. Next is a rite
called "securing the perimeter with an adamantine wall [fie
fangyu jingang qiang\ ,"68 A mudra becomes an adamantine
dagger that encircles the practitioner, establishing an im
pregnable wall that cannot be crossed by buddhas or bodhi
sattvas, much less by demons and other evil beings. This is
followed by a visualization that transforms the altar into a
suitable abode for the deity:
Imagine that in the middle of the altar there is a lion
throne set on top of a great eight-petaled lotus blossom.
On the throne is a seven-jeweled tower bedecked with
colorfully embroidered banners and jewel-covered pillars
arrayed in rows. Divine garments are hung about and it is
surrounded by fragrant clouds. Flowers rain down every
where and music plays. Jeweled vessels hold pure water,
there is divine food and drink, and a mani gem serves as a
lamp.69
Next is the "Universal Offerings of the Great Sky-Reposi
tory," a mudra-mantra combination that provisions the sanc
tuary, now transformed into a divine residence, with whatever
offerings the practitioner brings to mind. This is followed by
the "jeweled carriage [baochelu]," in which the practitioner
employs mantra and mudra to dispatch a royal carriage made
of the seven jewels to the land of bliss (file shijie)—the abode
of the principal deity. The practitioner then imagines
Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara, surrounded by his assembly,
ascending into the carriage, which is suspended in midair.
Then come two short rites: "entreating the carriage [qing
chelu]" and "entreating the principal deity and his assembly to
descend into the sanctuary [qing benzun sanmeiye jiangzhi yu
daochang]," in which the carriage returns to the sanctuary and
hovers in midair, as the divine passengers are invited to
alight.
In order to ward off obstacles and evil forces, the practi
tioner now summons the Luminous King Horse-Headed
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva of the Lotus Assembly (Sanskrit:
Hayagriva Vidyaraja, a wrathful emanation of Avalokitesvara)
to guard the precincts and ward off demons.70
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THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI
If you have followed the narrative sequence so far, you will
note that the ground beneath the practitioner as well as the
four walls have been rendered an indestructible adamantine
enclosure. The ceiling, however, has been left open to allow
the entry of the divine assembly. Now that the assembly is
settled on the altar, mudra and mantra are used to create an
adamantine net (jingang wang) to seal the top of the sanctu
ary and render it "secure and indestructible [jiangu bu
huai]."7] The final step in the "securing the domain" se
quence is the "adamantine fire enclosure [jingang huoyin
mifeng]," in which one imaginatively creates three rings of fire
that encircle the outside of the adamantine wall, adding a
final layer of protection from malevolent forces.
Having invoked the presence of the main deity, and having
secured the divine assembly in a fortified and impregnable
"seat of enlightenment" (Sanskrit: bodhimanda), the officiant
is ready to proceed to the final climactic sections of the rite,
which include offerings (flowers, incense, light, unguents,
food, and music), as well as mantra recitations and meditative
trances.
The Silver Box Explained
I have argued that we cannot fully appreciate the culture that
gave rise to the Famensi crypt without acknowledging an
obvious but largely ignored fact: the relics are patent fabri
cations. There is a second equally obvious fact that is key to
understanding the site: the crypt was intended to safeguard
the relics—to protect them for future generations.72 It
worked better than its designers may have imagined possible,
as the crypt remained unopened for over eleven hundred
years.
The nested reliquaries were intended to add yet another
layer of protection to the enclosed relics. The protection was
not merely physical. The set was inspired by the Esoteric altar
rites that were popular at the time—rites that describe a
procedure in which one imaginatively transforms a bounded
area into an indestructible, inviolable, and majestic buddha
realm suitable for lodging the gods.
The "securing the realm" sequence outlined above is sug
gestive. It corresponds, albeit not precisely, to the sequence
and design of the reliquary containers. At the heart of the
reliquary set we find the "true body" of the Buddha—a hollow
"finger" that is, at its center, an empty but fecund void (Fig.
11). The deities and their minions on the remaining contain
ers emanate from this void. This true-body relic is placed in a
tiny pagoda—a venerable symbol of the Buddha's nirvana
(Fig. 15). Next we find two similar boxes, each decorated with
lotus-blossom motifs on the tops and sides (Figs. 16, 17). The
lotus motif is evocative: in Esoteric practices the central dei
ties are imagined to issue from a lotus blossom that emerges,
in turn, from a moon disk. (Seed syllables, altars, and bejew
eled palaces may also emerge in the sequence of transforma
tions leading up to the appearance of the deity.) Thus, the
lotus blossoms on the second and third containers could be
seen as emanating from the relic within the pagoda, and the
lotus gives rise in turn to Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara,
surrounded by his assembly, as well as the three other Bud
dha assemblies that adorn the sides of the fourth container
(Fig. 18). The fifth container, in this reading, fills out the
52 art bulletin march 2011 volume xciii number 1
divine pantheon, adding the bodhisattvas Manjusri and Sa
mantabhadra into this mandala-like arrangement (Fig. 19).73
The all-important sixth container—the unadorned silver
box—would then constitute the adamantine enclosure that
seals off the deities ensconced within (Fig. 20). This same
enclosure is represented elsewhere in the crypt, notably by
the rows of multipronged, adamantine scepters, or "thunder
bolts" (jingang chu), laid end-to-end that surround the assem
blies on all sides of the forty-five-deity box, as well as on its
chamfered lid (Fig. 8). This is a common motif found on
mandalas, where a two-dimensional frame of scepters symbol
izes the three-dimensional adamantine enclosure conjured in
the ritual liturgy. (Rows of tiny scepters, for example, frame
the individual assemblies in the Japanese Diamond Realm
Mandala, Fig. 3.) But in the case of the eight-container set,
there is no need to employ scepters to symbolize an outer
impregnable enclosure; the plain silver box is itself the enclo
sure. This explains why the scepter border is not found sur
rounding the assemblies on the fourth and fifth containers of
this set. What better material instantiation of a sealed, dia
mondlike, and indestructible enclosure than this austere and
enigmatic silver box?74 Finally, on the outside of the adaman
tine enclosure, on the seventh container, the four heavenly
kings stand guard (Fig. 21 ).75
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20 Reliquary in the shape of a lidded
box, Tang dynasty (9th century CE),
sixth of eight containers (Fig. 5), from
Famen Monastery, underground crypt,
chamber no. 3, silver, 7% X 7V4 X
7V4 in. (19.3 X 18.4 X 18.4 cm), 2030
grams. Famen Monastery (artwork in
the public domain; photograph
provided by the Shaanxi sheng kaogu
yanjiu yuan)
The correspondences between the nested reliquary set and
the liturgies mentioned above—Instructions for Discerning and
Making Offerings to Immeasurable Life Tathagata, Ritual Instruc
tions for the Invocation of Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara Bodhi
sattva, and Yoga Practice for Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara
Bodhisattva—are not exact. The ritual manuals do not specify
the identity of the individual buddhas and bodhisattvas that
constitute the celestial assemblies of the central deity (ben
zuri), and the seventh container features Vaisravana rather
than Hayagriva. Recall, however, that Esoteric ritual manuals
were never systematized in China. Indeed, hundreds of struc
turally similar but iconographically diverse medieval manuals
survive in the received Chinese canon, in the Dunhuang
corpus, and in Japanese temple collections. It was not until
the emergence of a mikkyo system in Japan—a system built
around the shidokegyo ("four emancipatory practices") initia
tory sequence—that we see a serious attempt to standardize
the liturgies. Even then, and even within the Shingon school,
there remains significant variation across different initiatory
lines (Japanese: ryu).
More to the point, there is no reason to presume that the
nested reliquaries reference a specific ritual, or that they were
intended to serve in the context of actual liturgical perfor
mance. Rather, the reliquaries, like the finger-bone relics
 THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI

21 Reliquary in the shape of a lidded

box, showing Vaisravana and assembly
on the front face, Tang dynasty
(9th century CE), seventh of eight
containers (Fig. 5), from Famen
Monastery, underground crypt,
chamber no. 3, silver and gilt silver,
10% X 8% X 8V6 in. (27.5 X 20.5 X
20.5 cm), 2699 grams. Famen
Monastery (artwork in the public
domain; photograph provided by the
Shaanxi sheng kaogu yanjiu yuan)

themselves, were artistic creations that drew inspiration from
Esoteric liturgical and material culture—the culture of the
complex altar technology that had become popular at
court.76 In designing a reliquary suitable for the hallowed
true body of the Buddha, the artisans drew on these altar rites
to produce a housing that would at once glorify, protect, and
preserve the relic. It is natural that they should turn to the
occult technology, recently imported from India, that was
intended to create an abode for the earthly incarnation of a
transcendent being. In doing so, these anonymous artists
managed to give expression to the dialectical, self-negating,
and playful logic entailed in the very notion of the "true
body" of the Buddha.
Fingers and Moons
In considering Buddhist sacred objects, particularly artifacts
associated with Vajrayana or Esoteric Buddhism, scholars
have sought recourse in a variety of perspectives and ap
proaches. Some view the objects as more or less rote material
embodiments of the doctrinal teachings found in the surviv
pie—the need to win the support of wealthy and/or powerful
sponsors who may not have had an appreciation for the
subtleties of Buddhist doctrine. Or they may place the arti
facts in the context of political machinations—attempts to
curry favor with, or advance the cause of, one political faction
or another. Or they may concentrate on the functional or
instrumental role of Buddhist objects in their original archae
ological and ritual settings. Or they may try to weave multiple
perspectives together into a tapestry that does justice to the
complex social, institutional, and ritual settings that gave
birth to these objects.
In the recent rush to historicize and contextualize, the
decidedly artful aspects of Buddhist material culture have
taken a back seat. The theoretical fuzziness of the term "art"
is not solely responsible for this situation. Equally influential
is the postcolonial critique of the concept, which views the
category "art" as a modern, ideologically laden construction
that alienates objects from their proper historical, social, and
institutional contexts. In viewing ancient artifacts under the
rubric of art, so the argument runs, we wrest them from their

ing textual corpus. Accordingly, they focus on issues of ico original lived contexts—the world of the temple, the court,
nography, dating, lineage, and so on. Others prefer to un the tomb. We become complicit in the wholesale theft of
derscore the social and institutional context from which the native property and the creation of the modern bourgeois
artifacts emerged; they may foreground patronage, for exam museum. The analysis of medieval Buddhist objects under

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54 art bulletin march 2011 volume xciii number 1
the anachronistic rubric of art is thus Orientalist, imperialist,
and misguided.
But perhaps we have swung too far in the other direction,
leaving us with relentlessly functionalist readings that are
denatured and reductive. Scholars now underscore the role
of Buddhist images in facilitating devotion, as props for ritual
performance, as bearers of thaumaturgic or talismanic pow
ers, as pandering to patrons and emperors. The emphasis on
function and social context encourages us to view those who
produced and traded in these artifacts as either benighted
devotees or crafty manipulators who preyed on the faith of
the masses. Yet something seems suspicious when we deny
those distant from ourselves the same capacity as we have for
irony, wit, and imagination. In abandoning the rubric and
logic of "art," we become blind to the more playful dimen
sions of Buddhist material culture. To dismiss the category
"art" as parochial, romantic, Orientalist, or intellectually
bankrupt may lead us into another rut that is equally paro
chial, romantic, Orientalist, or intellectually bankrupt.
Consider, for the sake of comparison, an example drawn
from Buddhist literature, namely, case no. 3 of the Gateless
Barrier of the Chan Tradition (Chanzong wumen guan), a famous
Song dynasty collection of "public cases" (gong'an) compiled
in 1228 by the Chan master Wumen Huikai (1183-1260):
Whenever someone challenged [Chan Master] Juzhi
(ninth century) with a question, he would simply hold up
one finger. Later an acolyte was asked by someone on the
outside, "What is the master's essential teaching?" The
acolyte also held up his finger. When Juzhi heard about
this, he took out a knife and cut off the acolyte's finger.
The acolyte cried out in pain and ran out, but Juzhi called
him back. When the acolyte turned his head, Juzhi raised
his finger. The acolyte suddenly understood.77
Chan cases, popularly known in the West by the Japanese
term koan, were typically composed decades, if not centuries,
after the death of the protagonists. While they are popularly
thought of as verbatim records of historical events that cap
ture the inscrutable antics of enlightened masters, the truth
is more complex. Chan masters did not capriciously cut off
the fingers of their young attendants, any more than they
capriciously slit the throats of kittens (see case no. 14 of the
Gateless Barrier of the Chan Tradition, entitled "Nanquan Kills a
Cat"). These anecdotes are best approached as literature
intended for the training and edification of elite monastics:
they were prized for their laconic sophistication, literary ele
gance, deft wordplay, and ironic humor. In but a few short
sentences that conjure an arresting image, "Juzhi's Finger"
encapsulates the central logic of the Mahayana teachings of
skillful means (Sanskrit: upaya) and emptiness: all teachings
are "fingers pointing to the moon," but the moon to which
the finger points is the understanding that there are, in the
end, only fingers. When the young acolyte mistakes the finger
for the truth (that is, confuses the signifier with the signi
fied) , the master cuts off the boy's offending finger. Lest the
acolyte conclude that the absence of a finger is better than a
finger (that is, that no finger, or silence, or negation, is any
less contingent than a finger), Juzhi holds up his own finger
78
again.
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This Chan case illustrates the multivalence and complexity
of the "finger" trope in Chinese Buddhism. Juzhi's raised
finger signifies, first and foremost, the Buddha's wordless
teaching—the finger that points to the luminous moon,
which is, in turn, a metaphor for the naturally luminous
mind. At the same time, Juzhi's single digit denotes nondu
ality—the nonduality of subject and object, path and goal,
samsara and nirvana. Finally, the acolyte's severed finger
obliquely references the practice of self-immolation: the rit
ual act of burning off a finger, which was the most prevalent
form of self-mortification in Chinese Buddhism.79 Such mor
tifications, which ranged from incinerating a single digit to
immolating one's whole body, were ascetic ordeals—"offer
ings to the dharma"—intended to foster selflessness, pa
tience, and forbearance in oneself, and to encourage faith in
others. According to legend, the beginnings of the Chinese
Chan tradition can be traced to the Indian master Bodhi
dharma accepting Huike as his disciple, but Bodhidharma
refused to even acknowledge Huike's presence until Huike
severed his own arm and placed it in front of the master. In
the case of Juzhi's acolyte, in order to grasp the meaning of
his teacher's finger, he needed to lose his own.
The Famensi finger-bone relic was renowned for inspiring
acts of self-mortification. In his memorial to the throne, with
its derisive account of the procession of the relic to the capital
in 819, Han Yu mentioned zealots "burning heads and sear
ing fingers by the tens and hundreds," and urged restrictions
lest the faithful "cut off their arms and slice their flesh in the
way of offerings.""0 And Su E, a witness to the last procession
in 873, provided the following grisly details:
Those who came to see the spectacle all fasted beforehand
in order that they might receive the blessings of the Bud
dha. At the time, a soldier cut off his left arm in front of
the Buddha's relic, and while holding it with his hand, he
reverenced the relic each time he took a step, his blood
sprinkling the ground all the while. As for those who
walked on their elbows and knees, biting off their fingers
or cutting off their hair, their numbers could not be
counted. There was also a monk who covered his head
with artemisia, a practice known as disciplining the head.
When the pile of artemisia was ignited, the pain caused the
monk to shake his head and to cry out, but young men in
the market place held him tight so that he could not
move.81
Such practices were not the preserve of the unlettered masses
alone; no less a personage than Fazang (643-712), of later
fame as a Huayan exegete and confidant of the Empress Wu
Zetian, burned off a finger as an offering to the Famensi relic
when he was only fifteen.82
The artists responsible for construing the Famensi "true
body" of the Buddha as an elegantly fashioned empty finger
were thus working within this rich literary, mythological, and
symbolic terrain, and their accomplishment was no less in
ventive, inspired, and, indeed, artful than was that of the
anonymous author of the Juzhi story. Meticulously etching
the Northern Dipper on the inside surface of the "Buddha's
finger," they realized in jade what the Buddhist Perfection of
Wisdom (prajnaparamita) literature or the Chan cases man

aged in words—a construal of Buddhahood that slips
through one's fingers the moment one tries to grasp it. The
relic, suggestively made of white jade,83 was then carefully
ensconced within a series of eight exquisitely crafted nested
"caskets" that reference an Esoteric altar ritual—part of the
new "Buddhist Veda," or altar-binding technology, that had
become fashionable at court. What more fitting resting place
for the Buddha's empty finger than a reliquary fashioned as
a miniature, impregnable buddha realm?
The scholarship that explicates Buddhist artifacts and ma
terial culture in decidedly instrumental terms—foreground
ing ritual function, or the role of devotional objects in eco
nomic exchange relationships and in advancing institutional
and political agendas—has yielded important and valuable
insights. But the single-minded focus on function and social
context runs the risk of effacing the more sublime, ironic,
self-referential, and aesthetic aspects of Buddhist material
culture—namely, its art.
Robert H. Sharf is D. H. Chen Distinguished Professor and chair of
the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California,
Berkeley. His publications include Coming to Terms with Chi
nese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise
(2002) and (as coeditor) Living Images: Japanese Buddhist
Icons in Context (2001) [Department of East Asian Languages
and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley, 3413 Dwinelle
Hall, Berkeley, Calif 94720-2230, rsharf@berkeley.edu].
Notes
An early draft of this paper was presented at the conference "Images in
Motion: New Perspectives on Buddhist Texts and Images," held at the Uni
versity of British Columbia, February 9-10, 2008. My thanks to Eugene Wang,
the respondent to my paper, as well as to the participants of the conference
for their comments and suggestions. My thanks also to Jacob Dalton, Sarah
Fraser, Alexander von Rospatt, Elizabeth Horton Sharf, the three anonymous
readers for The Art Bulletin and its editor-in-chief, Karen Lang, for their astute
suggestions and criticisms.
1. The literature on relic veneration in Buddhism is vast. Recent publica
tions include David Germano and Kevin Trainor, eds., Embodying the
Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia (Albany: State University of
New York Press, 2004); John Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism on Chi
nese Material Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 29
52; Brian D. Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early
Medieval Japan, Harvard East Asian Monographs, no. 188 (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard University Press, 2000);
Gregory Schopen, "Relic," in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark
C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 256-68; idem,
Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epig
raphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India, Studies in the Buddhist
Traditions, no. 2 (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); John
Strong, Relics of the Buddha (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2004); and Kevin Trainor, Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism:
Rematerialising the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition, Cambridge Studies in
Religious Traditions, no. 10 (New York: Cambridge University Press,
1997).
2. The Tang period pagoda that once stood over the crypt collapsed in
1569; the Ming pagoda was constructed over a thirty-year period, from
1579 to 1609, under the patronage of Emperor Wanli (r. 1572-1620).
While there is no evidence that the crypt was opened during the Ming
restoration, the builders may have been aware of its existence: the
foundation of the Ming structure carefully straddles the Tang crypt so
as to leave it undisturbed. See the comprehensive archaeological re
port Famensi kaogu fajue baogao [Report of Archaeological Excavation at
Famen Temple], Shaanxisheng kaogu yanjiuyuan tianye kaogu baogao,
no. 45, 2 vols., ed. Shaanxisheng kaogu yanjiu yuan et al. (Beijing:
Wenwu chuban she, 2007), vol. 1, 6-10.
3. The historical record mentions only one relic at Famensi, but a total of
four were discovered. For this apparent discrepancy, see below.
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THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI
4. "Delivering the True Body [Relic] to Qiyang during the Xiantong
[reign] of the Great Tang [Da Tang Xiantong qi song Qiyang zhenshen zhi
wen]," dated 874 and ascribed to Seng Che (dates unknown). A photo
graph and transcription of this inscription are found, among other
places, in Wu Limin and Han Jinke, Famensi digong Tangmi mantuluo zhi
yanjiu (Hong Kong: Zhongguo Fojiao wenhua chuban gongsi, 1998),
40-43.
5. The list of other emperors who worshiped the relic includes Zhong
zong (r. 684, 705-10), Suzong (r. 756-62), Yizong (r. 859-73), and
Xizong (r. 873-88). The relic is reported to have been worshiped at
court in the years 631, 660, 705, 760, 790, 819, and 873.
6. The history of the site and its relics is reconstructed largely on the ba
sis of surviving stela inscriptions, as well as references in dynastic histo
ries and texts preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon. Two crucial
stela inscriptions were found in the antechamber to the crypt, namely,
"Delivering the True Body to Qiyang," mentioned above, and "Inven
tory of Ritual Implements, Gold, Silver, and Precious Objects Offered
to the True Body [Jiansong zhenshenshi sui zhenshen gongyang daojuji and
jinyin baoqi yiwuzhang]," dated 874; see Wu and Han, Famensi digong,
44-48; and the English rendering in Roderick Whitfield, "The Famen
Monastery and Empress Wu," in New Perspectives on China's Past: Chinese
Archaeology in the Twentieth Century, ed. Yang Xiaoneng (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2004), 397-98. Other key sources include the
"Stela Inscription of the Great Sage's True Body Treasure Pagoda of
the King Asoka Temple from the Sagely Reign of the Great Tang [Da
tang shengchao Wuyouwangsi Dasheng zhenshen baota beiming]," dated 778
and preserved in the Quan tang wen, 516: 5245-47; and the writings of
the Buddhist historian Daoxuan (596-667), notably, his Records of Mi
raculous Responses to the Three Jewels in China (Ji Shenzhou sanbao gantong
lu, Taisho 2106: 52; throughout the notes, Taisho refers to texts in the
Taisho shinshu daizokyo edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon, ed.
Takakusu Junjiro and Watanabe Kaigyoku [Tokyo: Taisho issaikyo
kankokai, 1924-32]. Texts are indicated by the text number and vol
ume, followed, when appropriate, by the page, register [a, b, or c], and
line number[s].). Daoxuan had an abiding interest in miracles and was
witness to the translation of the Famensi relic in 662, making this a
particularly valuable source. Among the secondary studies in English,
see Huang Chi-chiang, "Consecrating the Buddha: Legend, Lore, and
History of the Imperial Relic-Veneration Ritual in the Tang Dynasty,"
Zhonghua Foxue xuebao 11 (1998): 483-533; I-mann Lai, "Relics, the Sov
ereign and Esoteric Buddhism in Ninth-Century China—the Deposits
from the Famen Monastery" (PhD diss., University of London, 2005),
64-118; and Eugene Yuejin Wang, "Of the True Body: The Buddha's
Relics and Corporeal Transformation in Sui-Tang China," in Body and
Face in Chinese Visual Culture, ed. Wu Hung and Katherine Mino (Cam
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005), 79-118.
7. Han Yu's famous "Memorial on the Buddha's Bones [Lun fogu biao]" is
discussed and translated in Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin's Travels in
T'ang China (New York: Ronald Press, 1955), 221-24.
8. On the status of Esoterism in medieval China, see Robert H. Sharf,
Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store
Treatise, Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism, no. 14 (Ho
nolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002), 263-78.
9. Japanese: ryogai mandara, also known as the "mandalas of the two divi
sions," ryobu mandara.
10. The first of these two mandalas is supposedly based on the Sarvata
thagata-tattvasamgraha-sutra (translated by Vajrabodhi and Amogha
vajra), a section of the no-longer-extant VajraSekhara-sutra. The second
is supposedly based on (a) chapters 2 and 9 of the Mahavairocana-sutra;
and (b) chapter 5 of Subhakarasimha's commentary to this text.
11. The earliest extant example of a paired set of "mandalas of the two
realms" is the so-called Takao pair that survives at Jingoji in Kyoto. This
ninth-century set is purported to be a faithful copy of the pair that Ku
kai brought back from China, but the genealogy of the set has been
called into question. There is no compelling evidence, for example,
that the "nine-assembly" Diamond Realm Mandala that became stan
dard in Japan was ever known in China. And mention of the pairing
and integration of the two mandalas is nowhere to be found in the
large body of writings by Subhakarasimha, Yixing (683-727), or Amo
ghavajra. In defense of traditional Japanese claims regarding the Chi
nese provenance of the two-mandala system, some Shingon scholars
have argued that it originated with Kukai's Chinese master, Huiguo
(746-805). This claim is defensible precisely because it is not refut
able: little survives of Huiguo's teachings. We should be wary of tradi
tional Shingon claims in this regard; extant Chinese sources controvert
Kukai's claim that Huiguo was Amoghavajra's leading disciple and heir,
which alone should be sufficient to raise doubts concerning Kukai's
other pronouncements on the subject. The classic study of the Takao
mandalas remains Takata Osamu, Akiyama Terukazu, and Yanagisawa
Taka, Takao mandara no kenkyii (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1967);
for an overview of more recent scholarship, see Elizabeth ten Groten
huis, Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography (Honolulu:
56 ART BULLETIN MARCH 2011 VOLUME XCIII NUMBER 1
University of Hawai'i Press, 1999); and Cynthea J. Bogel, With a Single
Glance: Buddhist Icons and Early Mikkyo Vision (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 2009). For an English overview of the Japanese
scholarship on the origins of the two-mandala system, see Inui Hitoshi,
"Kukai's Theory of Ryobu," in Esoteric Buddhist Studies: Identity in Diver
sity, Proceedings of the International Conference on Esoteric Buddhist
Studies, Koyasan University, September 5-8, 2006 (Koyasan: Koyasan
University Press, 2008), 31-34. For an attempt to read the two-mandala
system into an Indian Buddhist site, see John C. Huntington, "Cave Six
at Aurangabad: A Tantrayana Monument?" in KaladarSana: American
Studies in the Art of India, ed. Joanna G. Williams (New Delhi: Oxford
and IBH Publishing, 1981), 47-55.
12. See, for example, Bogel, With a Single Glance, 78-88; Angela Falco
Howard et al., Chinese Sculpture, Culture and Civilization of China (New
Haven: Yale University Press; Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2006),
313-15; and Lai, "Relics, the Sovereign and Esoteric Buddhism," 45
63.
13. The Anguosi sculptures, which may number eleven in all, have now
been moved to the Forest of Steles Museum, Xi'an, although some be
longing to the group may have found their way into foreign collec
tions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. They appear to have
been deliberately damaged and disposed of in a pit, leading scholars to
speculate that they fell victim to the Huichang persecution of 845. For
reproductions of the Anguosi pieces, in addition to the references in
n. 12 above, see Matsubara Saburo, Chugoku Bukkyo chokoku shiron, 4
vols. (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1995), 193-98.
14. Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara appears in some twenty-eight separate
caves at Dunhuang dating to the Tang alone, but there is no evidence
of Esoteric rituals having been practiced in Dunhuang caves during the
Tang. Indeed, it is questionable whether the Tang period caves were
ever intended for high monastic rituals, as opposed to modest, cleric
led memorial offerings by laypersons to garner merit for the welfare of
family and clan ancestors. Numerous depictions of precisely such me
morial services adorn the walls at Dunhuang, but I know of no depic
tions on Tang caves of the sort of Esoteric rites associated with Subha
karasimha and Amoghavajra. This is not to imply that images of
Avalokitesvara, including those of Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara, are
not found in contexts where an Esoteric ritual is implied. Various
sketches of deities on paper recovered from the "library cave" at Dun
huang may well have been linked with Esoteric ritual manuals, includ
ing Pelliot chinois collection (Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris)
nos. 2012, 4009, 3937. It is also possible that some painted mandalas
on silk were intended to serve as icons for Esoteric rites; see, for exam
ple, the "Amoghapasa Mandala," Musee Guimet, acc. no. E03579. How
ever, the earliest such images date to the mid- to late tenth century.
Amanda Goodman's forthcoming PhD dissertation (Group in Buddhist
Studies, University of California, Berkeley) examines the evidence, in
cluding sketches and paintings, for Esoteric Buddhist practice at Dun
huang.
15. Amitayus, for example, is the central object of worship in the Ritual
Instructions for Discerning and Making Offerings to Immeasurable Life
Tathagata (Wuliangshou rulai guanxing gongyang yigui, Taisho 930: 19),
an influential Esoteric ritual manual translated by Amoghavajra. This
liturgy played an important role in the systematization of the mikkyo
initiatory sequence in Japan. See Robert H. Sharf, "Visualization and
Mandala in Shingon Buddhism," in Living Images: fapanese Buddhist
Icons in Context, Asian Religions and Cultures, ed. Sharf and Elizabeth
Horton Sharf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 242 n. 22.
Scholars do not generally classify Amitayus as an Esoteric deity because
of his connection to Pure Land Buddhism. But the notion of Amitayus
as a Pure Land deity is equally problematic; see Robert H. Sharf, "On
Pure Land Buddhism and Ch'an/Pure Land Syncretism in Medieval
China," T'oung Pao 88, nos. 4-5 (2003): 282-331.
16. On the provenance of the Esoteric mandalas supposedly brought from
China to Japan by Kukai, for example, see n. 11 above.
17. Famensi kaogu fajue baogao, vol. 1, 143. See also Wu and Han, Famensi
digong, who structure their entire analysis around the two-mandala the
ory; and the lavishly illustrated new volume published in conjunction
with the Famensi Museum, Han Sheng, ed., Famensi wenwu tushi (Bei
jing: Wenwu chuban she, 2009), 417-64, which rehearses the two-man
dala reading in detail.
18. This is reinforced by Lai's recent analysis, "Relics, the Sovereign and
Esoteric Buddhism"—perhaps the most scrupulous work done to date
on the iconography of the Famensi reliquaries—which fails to find evi
dence for the two-mandala reading.
19. See, for example, Robert M. Gimello, "Manifest Mysteries: The Nature
of the Exoteric/Esoteric (Xian/Mi) Distinction in Later Chinese Bud
dhism" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Acad
emy of Religion, Washington, D.C., November 21, 2006); and Charles
Orzech, "The 'Great Teaching of Yoga,' the Chinese Appropriation of
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the Tantras, and the Question of Esoteric Buddhism," Journal of Chinese
Religions $4 (2006): 29-78.
20. Jonathan Z. Smith, Talal Asad, Tomoko Masuzawa, and Robert Orsi are
among the many scholars who have contributed to this critique. In the
field of Buddhist studies, see especially Gregory Schopen, "Archaeology
and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism," His
tory of Religions 31, no. 1 (1991): 1-23; and Donald S. Lopez Jr., ed.,
Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1995).
21. This is also the conclusion of many recent attempts to use cognitive
science to explain religion; see, for example, Pascal Boyer, Religion Ex
plained: The Human Instincts That Fashion Gods, Spirits and Ancestors
(London: Heinemann, 2001).
22. The mandala reading of the crypt dominates the approach found in
Wu and Han, Famensi digong. Roderick Whitfield believes that imple
ments such as the khakkaras (monk's staves), incense burner, and four
arghya bottles placed in the corners of chamber no. 3 bespeak an
abhiseka rite done at the time the crypt was last sealed; see Whitfield,
"The Famen Monastery," 396; and idem, "Esoteric Buddhist Elements
in the Famensi Deposit," Asiatische Studien 44 (1990): 252. I-mann Lai
("Relics, the Sovereign and Esoteric Buddhism," 271-78) believes the
nested eight-container reliquary set was intended for use in Esoteric
rites but imagines the rites as taking place in the imperial palace rather
than in the crypt. In a series of articles, Luo Zhao argues that it would
have been impossible to perform rituals in the cramped space of the
crypt, and besides, the contents of the crypt include both Esoteric and
exoteric elements; hence, the crypt did not constitute a mandala in
tended for Esoteric rites. See Luo Zhao, "Famensi ta digong bushi
mantuluo," Zhongguo wenwu bao (April 2, 1995); idem, "Liieshu Fa
mensi ta digong cangpin de gongjiao neihan," Wenwu 6 (1995): 53-62;
and idem, "Zaitan Famensi digong bushi mantuluo," Zhongguo wenwu
bao (August 27, 1995). On the possible performance of rituals in the
crypt, see also the discussions in Wang, "Of the True Body," 382 n. 70;
and Bogel, With a Single Glance, 103-6.
23. Bogel (With a Single Glance, 105), for example, equivocates on the issue
of whether the Famensi artifacts were used in the performance of rit
ual: "The crypt contents suggest ritual performance of abhiseka, either
in practice or through representation and metaphor."
24. Wang ("Of the True Body," 79) states this assumption up front, noting,
"For historians of medieval Chinese culture, the relics hold little inter
est per se; rather, it is what the relics inspired and entailed in history
. . . that is more empirically compelling and cognitively intriguing."
25. Wu and Han (Famensi digong, 78) identify the relic in chamber no. 1 as
jade as well, but the more recent and comprehensive reports (Famensi
kaogu fajue baogao, vol. 1, 275-76; Han, Famensi wenwu, 194) state that
this relic was also of bone. To my knowledge, no one has yet identified
the source of the bone in the bone relics. Given the temple's claim
that at least one of the bones is from the body of Sakyamuni, there is a
strong disincentive to facilitate scientific analysis of the relics. Note that
Chinese scholars number the relics in the order of their discovery,
such that the relic in chamber 1 is labeled relic no. 4, that in chamber
2 is relic no. 2, that in chamber 3 is relic no. 1, and the relic in the
secret niche is relic no. 3. As this is somewhat confusing, I refer here
to the relics according to the chamber in which they were found.
26. Wu and Han (Famensi digong, 67) suggest that the four relics are associ
ated with the four directional Buddhas of the two mandalas, but for
reasons mentioned above I find this unconvincing.
27. See, for example, Lai, "Relics, the Sovereign and Esoteric Buddhism,"
37; Wang, "Of the True Body," 95; Whitfield, "The Famen Monastery,"
402; and Wu and Han, Famensi digong, 67.
28. According to the Peoples Daily Online, November 11, 2005, the relic was
"confirmed by archeologists as the middle finger of the left hand of
Sakyamuni," http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200511/11/eng20051111_
220641.html (accessed July 9, 2010). No evidence or analysis accompanies
this claim.
29. Various attempts have been made to explain the presence of the aster
ism on the Famensi relic by reference to Buddhist and Daoist rituals
devoted to Ursa Major. Lai ("Relics, the Sovereign and Esoteric Bud
dhism," 226-38), for example, argues that it is tied to cultic practices
related to the Dipper and the constellations. Wang ("Of the True
Body," 115-16) is, to my mind, rightly skeptical about such theories;
there is simply no evidence of Northern Dipper practices anywhere in
the Famensi crypt, as Lai herself (274) acknowledges. I think the in
scription of the Northern Dipper on the interior of the relic must be
understood as evidence of what is appropriately called "artistic inspira
tion"; see below.
30. A buddha's physical body is said to possess the 32 major and 80 minor
"marks" or "characteristics" (Sanskrit: laksana, Chinese: xiang) of a
"great man" (Sanskrit: mahapurusa, Chinese: dazhangfu) or "wheel-turn
ing sage-king" (Sanskrit: cakravarti-raja, Chinese: zhuanlun shengwang).

Of the 112 marks, the only ones that pertain to fingers are "long slen
der fingers" (Sanskrit: dirghangulitva, Chinese: xianzhangzhixiang) and
"webbed fingers and toes" (Sanskrit: jalavanaddha-hasta-pada, Chinese:
shouzuzhi manwang xiang), neither of which is of much help in explain
ing the appearance of the Famensi relics.
31. See, for example, the discussion in Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism,
46-47.
32. The horse-tooth Buddha relic from the Asoka Pagoda was found in a
metal container with a parinirvana buddha etched on the top. Among
the other artifacts found at the site were sixteen pieces of burnt hu
man finger and toe bones in a gilt-silver case. See Lianyungang shi
Bowuguan, ed., "Lianyungang Haiqing si Ayuwang ta wensu chutu ji,"
Wenzuu, 1981, no. 7: 31-38.
33. Two such relics, enshrined along with the relics of a local saint, were
discovered in a crypt at Xingshengjiaosi (Songjiang, Shanghai); see
Sonya S. Lee, Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual
Culture (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010), 259-60.
Kieschnick (The Impact of Buddhism, 47) discusses a reference to the
teeth of tapirs being used as Buddha relics in a sixteenth-century Chi
nese catalog of plants and animals. Tooth relics seem to have been
more common than finger bones: the Japanese pilgrim Ennin men
tions four famous tooth relics in Chang'an; see Edwin O. Reischauer,
Ennin's Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law
(New York: Ronald Press, 1955), 300-303.
34. Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism, 46.
35. On the various buddha-body theories in medieval China, see Sharf,
Coming to Terms, 100-111.
36. On kataphatic tendencies in Chinese Buddhist thought, see Robert M.
Gimello, "Apophatic and Kataphatic Discourse in Mahayana: A Chinese
View," Philosophy East and West 26, no. 2 (1976): 117-35.
37. Sharf, Coming to Terms, 90-115.
38. Wang ("Of the True Body," 81-83) opens his analysis of the Famensi
finds with a discussion of the term "true body," suggesting that the
term itself is transgressive. Wang notes that the Buddha is more prop
erly thought of as a transcendent principle, realization, teaching, and
not as a corporeal being. My own reading, based on the evidence of
the crypt itself, sees the clerics as rather sophisticated in their ap
proach to Buddha relics; their use of the term "true body" for a relic
of white jade, rather than being problematic, is both sanctioned by
scripture and poetically inspired.
39. Drawing on the work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, these schol
ars argue that efforts to define "art" are doomed, as there is no reason
to believe in the existence of some set of intrinsic properties, qualities,
or attributes common to everything we subsume under the category.
We are perfectly capable of using terms—of picking out apposite in
stances—that we are unable to define. See, for example, Morris Weitz,
"The Role of Theory in Aesthetics," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
15, no. 1 (1956): 27-35. Weitz argues that the concept "art" functions
like the concept "game": one cannot point to any common properties
that all instances have in common, but there are "strands of similari
ties" or "family resemblances."
40. Arthur C. Danto has argued, in a host of articles and books, that what
ever makes art "art" cannot be an intrinsic or even a perceptual prop
erty, since there are cases in which we are confronted with two identi
cal objects (like a urinal or a Brillo box, to cite his favorite examples),
in which one is "art" and one is "not art." Thus, sensual experience
alone cannot be the decisive factor; the ascription of the term "art"
requires thought and reflection. See especially Danto, "The Artworld,"
Journal of Philosophy 61, no. 19 (1964): 571-84; and idem, The Transfigu
ration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1981). Other approaches to the problem of definition
that foreground the role of social institutions and audience response
include Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, ed. Gretel Adorno and
Rolf Tiedemann (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1984); George
Dickie, Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor
nell University Press, 1974); and idem, The Art Circle: A Theory of Art
(New York: Haven, 1984).
41. R. G. Collingwood argues that it is precisely such expressive elements—
the use of representations to arouse, manage, and direct our emotional
response—that connect the world of art to the world of magic; Colling
wood, The Principles of Art (1938; New York: Oxford University Press,
1958).
42. See Denis Dutton, "But They Don't Have Our Concept of Art," in Theo
ries of Art Today, ed. Noel Carroll (Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, 2000), 217-38.
43. On the relation between art and agency, see Alfred Gell, "The Tech
nology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology" (1992),
in The Art of Anthropology: Essays and Diagrams, ed. Eric Hirsch (London:
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THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI
Athlone Press, 1999); and idem, Art and Agency (Oxford: Oxford Uni
versity Press, 1998).
44. Two somewhat extreme but nonetheless instructive examples of this
gap are Marcel Duchamp's Fountain and Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes—
those two twentieth-century "artworks" that have so bedeviled a genera
tion of art theorists and philosophers. In the case of Duchamp's urinal
and Warhol's Brillo boxes, the gap is between the utilitarian object of
the workaday world and the virtually identical object declared, by its
gallery setting, to be a "work of art." In those cases, the similarities are
what arouse our curiosity; the urinal and Brillo boxes are more or less
indistinguishable from their "nonart" counterparts. In the case of the
relics, it is the obvious differences that count. I am not suggesting that
the Famensi relics should be understood as "conceptual art"; they have
to be understood within the larger frame of their immediate religious,
mythical, and material context. Nonetheless, in viewing the relics, an
implicit ellipsis is implicated in the aesthetic response.
45. We might liken this audience to what Danto ("The Artworld") calls the
"artworld": the social and institutional sphere in which an artifact
comes to be considered and valued for its aesthetic effects.
46. It is unclear just who would have been able to see the relics up close.
According to Daoxuan's report of the opening of the crypt in 660 dur
ing the reign of Emperor Gaozong, quite a few were able to view the
relic. He himself got a close look and describes it as 1 cun 2 fen in
length (roughly corresponding to the length of the extant relics) and
resembling the top phalanx of the little finger (Ji shenzhou sanbao gan
tonglu, Taisho 2106: 52.407a-b). Daoxuan was, of course, among the
clerical elite of his day. The inner members of the imperial household
would also have been in a position to view and perhaps handle the
relic. Whether or not they should be numbered among the cogno
scenti of Danto's "artworld"—whether members of the court would
have had the background to appreciate the complex and overdeter
mined design of the relics—is difficult to tell. But I suspect that in this
case the art world, in its rigorous sense, consisted largely of those few
"insiders" who were privy to the secrets of the crypt, including the exis
tence of multiple finger bones. Other evidence for the close viewing of
a relic comes from the Japanese pilgrim Ennin, who described his visit
to a famous tooth relic during a festival in Chang'an in 841. Ennin
wrote, "We monks in search of the Law went on the tenth day and per
formed adoration. We went up into the storied hall of the Buddha's
tooth and saw the Buddha's tooth ourselves and reverently held it and
worshiped it" (Reischauer, Ennin's Diary, 301).
47. On medieval Chinese writings on art and aesthetics, see especially the
materials collected in William Reynolds Beal Acker, Some Vang and Pre
T'ang Texts on Chinese Painting, Institutum Sinologicum Lugduno Bata
vum, no. 8 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954); Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih,
eds., Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer
sity Press, 1985); and Ch'ung-ho Chang and Hans H. Frankel, Two Chi
nese Treatises on Calligraphy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).
48. The five-container set, beginning from the inside and working out,
consists of (1) a coffin-shaped box of white jade that held the relic; (2)
a crystal sarcophagus (guo) with sapphire and topaz stones adorning
the lid; (3) a lacquered sandalwood box with silver trim, now in frag
ments; (4) a gilt-silver container illustrated with forty-five deities from
the Vajradhatu Mandala (Fig. 8); (5) an outer iron box. An inscription
on the bottom of the gilt-silver container dates it to the twelfth year of
the Xiantong period (871) and associates it with Emperor Yizong's ven
eration of the relic (Famensi kaogu fajue baogao, vol. 2, 131; and Whit
field, "The Famen Monastery," 401). Whitfield (ibid.) believes the in
ner jade and crystal caskets must have been fashioned at the same time
and notes that the crystal and outer iron box are among the artifacts
mentioned in the "Yiwuzhang" inscription of 874 (see n. 6 above); he
suggests that these three containers were all produced during the Sui
or early Tang dynasty.
49. Various theories concerning the genesis and significance of the eight
container set have been offered to date, but I will forgo a review of
them here. See Lai, "Relics, the Sovereign and Esoteric Buddhism,"
111 (where she speculates that the design of the eight-container set was
likely overseen by the "recorders of the clergy, Yanchu and Qinglan or
the abbot of the palace chapel, Sengche"); and Wang, "Of the True
Body" (who believes that the set was crafted by court eunuchs to legiti
mize the enthronement of the twelve-year-old Emperor Xizong in 873).
Wang (98, drawing on Mulasarvastivada vinayaksudrakavastu, Taisho
1451: 24.399c) has an interesting although speculative explanation for
the number of containers in this set: the notion of eight caskets may
have come from the legend of King Ajatasatru, who died of grief when
informed that the Buddha had passed away. Ajatasatru's corpse was
placed in a set of eight specially prepared nested caskets that brought
him back to life. The story of Ajatasatru dying and coming back to life
was apparently known in Central Asia: it is illustrated in wall paintings
that survive at Kizil.
50. As noted above, the layout of this chamber, which includes images of
 ART BULLETIN MARCH 2011 VOLUME XCIII NUMBER
the divine kings and ritual water pots arrayed at the four corners, has
frequently but unhelpfully been described as a mandala.
51. Whitfield, "The Famen Monastery," 397.
52. The best photographic depiction may be found in Han, ed., Famensi
wenwu, 149. See also Wu and Han, Famensi digong, 336; and Shaanxi
kaogu yanjiusuo and Famensi bowuguan, eds., Fomen mibao Da Tang
yizhen: Shaanxi Fufeng Famensi digong, Zhongguo kaogu wenwu zhi mei,
no. 10 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1994), 142.
53. Nested reliquaries, dating to the early seventh century, were found, for
example, in the underground crypt at Jingzhi Monastery (Ding County,
Hebei Province), discovered in 1969. The Jingzhisi deposits, like those
at Famensi, consisted of hundreds of pieces of fine metalwork, textiles,
wood carvings, jade, ceramic wares, and glasswares, and more than
twenty-five thousand coins. This crypt, once beneath a pagoda, had
been repeatedly opened and resealed over many centuries. Lee (Surviv
ing Nirvana, 212-20) discusses these finds and provides a rough chro
nology of the different kinds of reliquaries found in such deposits.
Wang ("Of the True Body," 97-98) dates the use of nested reliquaries
back to at least the sixth century and suggests that they drew on the
use of nested caskets in traditional Chinese burials.
54. Han Wei and Christian Deydier discuss additional examples of nested
reliquary sets, including some containing coffin-shaped containers,
found at the Iron Pagoda near the town of Zhenjiang (Jiangsu Prov
ince), Qingshansi near Xinfeng (Lintong County, Shaanxi Province),
and at excavations at Dayunsi (Jingchuan County, Gansu Province);
Han and Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold (Paris: Editions d'Art et
d'Histoire, ARHIS, 2001), 125-32.
55. Wu Limin, Han Jinke, and I-mann Lai all approach the set as a whole,
yet they pass over the silver box in silence. The one exception is a sin
gle sentence by Wang ("Of the True Body," 112). Wang sees the eight
container set as both legitimizing the reign of the twelve-year-old Em
peror Xizong and representing the transformative journey of the
deceased or soon-to-be deceased spirit of Emperor Yizong, a journey
inward through the nested containers toward the relic at the center.
Wang suggests that the plain silver box "serves as a boundary that sepa
rates the numinous realm from the human world."
56. Daoxuan, who devoted considerable energy to reconstructing the his
tory, significance, and design of ordination platforms, argued that in
India there was a clear distinction between ordination areas (chang)
and ordination platforms (tan). In the Illustrated Scripture on the Ordina
tion Platform Established in Guanzhong (Guanzhong chuangli jietan tujing),
for example, Daoxuan lamented: "People today do not understand and
confuse [chang and tan], regarding them as one and the same. They
do not distinguish between the flat chang and the raised tan." Taisho
1892: 45.807c25-26; trans. Funayama Toru, "Gunavarman and Some of
the Earliest Examples of Ordination Platforms [jietan] in China" (pa
per presented at the conference "Images, Relics and Legends: Forma
tion and Transformation of Buddhist Sacred Sites," University of Brit
ish Columbia, October 15-16, 2004), 13, with changes. On Buddhist
ordination platforms, in addition to Funayama, see especially Hirakawa
Akira, "Kaidan no gen'i," Indogaku Bukkyogaku kenkyii 10, no. 2 (1962):
276-96; Mochizuki Shinko, Bukkyo daijiten, 10 vols. (Tokyo: Sekai seiten
kanko kyokai, 1933-36), vol. 1, 391-92; John R. McRae, "Daoxuan's
Vision of Jetavana: The Ordination Platform Movement in Medieval
Chinese Buddhism," in Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya, ed. Wil
liam M. Bodiford (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005), 68
100; and Ocho Enichi, "Kaidan ni tsuite," in Chugoku Bukkyo no kenkyu
(Kyoto: Hozokan, 1979), vol. 3, 1-74.
57. Different Vinaya commentaries appear to use jietan, jiechang #^§, and
jiechang for one and the same structure, that is, an ordination plat
form; see Hirakawa, "Kaidan no gen'i"; and Funayama, "Gunavarman."
58. I would note that the Chinese understanding of the apotropaic and
sacrificial technology associated with tan is occluded in English when it
is rendered "platform" in one context and "altar" in another. To take
one example, the rise of interest in Esoteric altars in eighth-century
China may have influenced the Chan understanding of the word tan in
a variety of eighth-century texts, such as the Altar Scripture of the Sixth
Patriarch (Liuzu tanjing), and Heze Shenhui's (684-758) Venerable Nan
yang's Altar Sermon on the Direct Realization of the [Buddha] Nature Accord
ing to Chan Doctrine of Liberation through the Teaching of Sudden [Awaken
ing] (Nanyang heshang dunjiao jietuo chanmen zhiliaoxing tanyu). These
texts appeared at roughly the same time as the proliferation of "altar
method" (tanfa) manuals that survive from Dunhuang. Timothy H.
Barrett notes that Ennin, who brought a copy of the Altar Scripture of
the Sixth Patriarch back with him to Japan, groups the text in his catalog
not with Chan texts (of which there is a listing) but with "ordination
texts"; Barrett, "Buddhist Precepts in a Lawless World: Some Com
ments on the Linhuai Ordination Scandal," in Bodiford, Going Forth,
117. On the "altar rite" manuals from Dunhuang, see Goodman, forth
coming PhD diss.
59. For a more comprehensive treatment of these manuals, see Robert H.
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Sharf, "Thinking through Shingon Ritual," Journal of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies 26, no. 1 (2003): 51-96.
60. See, for example, the Goma chapter of the Dapiluzhe'na chengfo jingshu,
where Yixing says that the Buddhist fire ritual was based on its Vedic
counterpart in order to convert followers of the Vedas to Buddhism:
"The Buddha himself taught the very foundation of the Vedas, and in
that way manifested the correct principles and method of the true
Goma. This is the 'Buddha Veda' " (Taisho 1796: 39.779al9-21). See
also the discussions in Toganoo Shoun, Himitsujiso no kenkyu, Toganoo
Shoun zenshu, vol. 2 (1935; reprint, Koyasan: Koyasan daigaku mikkyo
bunka kenkyujo, 1982), 85—86; and Sharf, "Thinking through Shingon
Ritual."
61. See n. 15 above.
62. Guanzizai pusa ruyilun niansong yigui, Taisho 1085: 20.
63. Guanzizai pusa ruyilun yuqie, Taisho 1086: 20.
64. Sharf, "Thinking through Shingon Ritual."
65. Cintamanicakra Avalokitesvara remains the central deity down to the
present day in the initiatory "eighteen-methods" ritual (juhachido) of
the Sanboinryu branch of Shingon; see Sharf, "Visualization and Man
date," 151-97.
66. On the meaning of terms such as xiang, or "visualization," in an East
Asian Esoteric context, see the analysis in ibid.
67. Taisho 1985: 20.204cll.
68. Taisho 1985: 20.204c22.
69. Taisho 1085: 20.205a7-10.
70. Taisho 1085: 20.205b8.
71. Taisho 1085: 20.205b28-c4.
72. Lee (Surviving Nirvana, 203-63) suggests that relic crypts such as the
one at Famensi are best thought of as time capsules: those who con
structed them expected them to be opened after a passage of time,
and they designed and provisioned the crypts with this future audience
in mind.
73. Some have argued that the fourth container consists of Esoteric deities,
while the fifth is confined to "exoteric" deities, but this distinction is
forced; as I have argued above, there is little evidence that Tang clerics
classified deities into two distinct pantheons, one "Esoteric" and one
"exoteric."
74. Note that when jingang (Sanskrit: vajra) is used as an adjective in com
pounds such as "adamantine throne" (jingang zuo), "adamantine wall"
(jingang qiang), and "adamantine net" (jingang wang), it means simply
"diamondlike" or "indestructible." In other words, jingang does not
necessarily refer to the adamantine scepter or "cudgel" (jingang chu);
hence, there is no reason for this scepter motif to appear on the silver
box. The adamantine scepter is depicted on a number of artifacts in
the crypt in addition to its use on the forty-five-deity case, including a
monk's staff (Famensi kaogu fajue baogao, cat. no. FD5: 041), armlets
(FD5: 085, 086, 091, 092), and a gilt-silver pitcher (FD5: 017), all of
which were found in chamber no. 3. It is also seen on the bottom of
the kneeling bodhisattva image discussed above (Fig. 7).
75. The eighth container—now in pieces—remains a puzzle. As mentioned
above, the outermost box in nested reliquary sets is typically made of
iron or stone, presumably to protect the inner boxes. In this case, the
outer box is sandalwood, and the archaeological report mentions
painted traces of a Western (Amitabha) and an Eastern Pure Land
scene (Famensi kaogu fajue baogao, vol. 1, 273). Han Sheng (Famensi
wenwu, 149) also mentions a Sakyamuni preaching scene as well as a
"Buddha veneration" (lifo) scene. Published photographs of the surviv
ing fragments are of no help in identifying the images, but if the de
pictions were indeed of buddha lands, then I am at a loss to place
them within the liturgical schema outlined above. If, on the other
hand, the images were of celestial heavens or divine gardens—perhaps
misinterpreted as buddha paradise scenes by the archaeologists—then
this is precisely what one might expect given the logic of Esoteric rites.
Note, for example, the description of the outer rim of a mandala
found on the "Sadhana for Guhyasamaja," a Tibetan text from Dun
huang dating to the Tang: "Imagine that the outer rim of the mandala
is filled with the protectors, i.e., Brahma and so forth, the eight blazing
auspicious symbols, and the outer offerings, i.e., the pool and so forth"
(Stein Collection, British Library, London, IOL Tib J 331/2, 5v.2-3;
trans. Jacob Dalton, personal communication). See also the description
of the gardens surrounding the "Mansion of the External Vajra," in
Adrian Snodgrass, The Matrix and Diamond World Mandalas in Shingon
Buddhism, Sata-Pitaka Series Indo-Asian Literatures, no. 354, 2 vols.
(New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1988), vol. 1, 146. The use of sandal
wood rather than the precious materials used for the inner boxes
would mark this outer container as part of the mundane (Sanskrit:
laukika) realm, distinct from the supramundane (Sanskrit: lokottara)
domain within. (My thanks to Jacob Dalton for this suggestion.)
 THE BUDDHA'S FINGER BONES AT FAMENSI

76. One of the inscriptions found at the site—"Delivering the True Body
to Qiyang" (see n. 4 above)—refers to a request made by a Tang monk
to the court in 871 to "establish an altar beneath the pagoda [jietan ta
82. See Jinhua Chen, "More than a Philosopher: Fazang (643-712) as a
xia]."
77. Taisho 2005: 48.293M0-16; cf. case no. 19 in the Blue Cliff Record
(Biyan lu), Taisho 2003: 48.159al7-160al9.
83. The use of white jade for two of the finger-bone relics was far from
78. For a full exploration of the gong'an genre, see Robert H. Sharf, "How
to Think with Chan Gong'ansin Thinking with Cases: Specialized Knowl
edge in Chinese Cultural History, ed. Charlotte Furth, Judith Zeitlin, and
Hsiung Ping-chen (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007), 205
43.
79. On self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism, see especially James A.
Benn, Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism, Ku
roda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism, no. 19 (Honolulu: Uni
versity of Hawai'i Press, 2007).
80. Han Yu, trans. Reischauer, Ennin's Travels, 223.
81. Su E, from the Duyang zabian of 876, preserved in Tang Wudai biji
xiaoshuo daguan, ed. Ding Ruming et al. (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chu
banshe, 2000), vol. 2, 1398; trans. Kenneth K. S. Ch'en, Buddhism in
China: A Historical Survey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964),
281. See also the account of the translation of the relic in 819 in Stan
ley Weinstein, Buddhism under the T'ang (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni
versity Press, 1987), 103.
Politician and Miracle Worker," History of Religions 42, no. 4 (2003):
323.
arbitrary. A genre of meditation practices in China known as the white
bone contemplations (baigu guan) involves visualizing one's body as a
"pure" skeleton bereft of all impure (subject to decay) flesh. The tech
nique is described in detail in the various meditation sutras (chan jing)
associated with Kumarajlva, such as the Scripture on the Esoteric Essential
Methods of Meditation (Chan miyao fajing, Taisho 613: 15), as well as "dis
cernment scriptures" (guan jing) such as the Scripture on the Ocean-like
Samadhi of the Discernment of the Buddha (Guanfo sanmei hai jing, Taisho
643: 15). These texts describe the transformation of the white bones
into white jade (bai yu) that emits light (see, for example, Taisho 643:
15.692a). In his forthcoming PhD dissertation (Group in Buddhist
Studies, University of California, Berkeley), Eric Greene suggests that
this may reflect Daoist practices aimed at strengthening and transform
ing one's bones into the white jade bones of the immortals. White jade
was thus the ideal medium in which to fashion the immortal and lumi
nescent relics of the Buddha.

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