Buddhist reliquary

Stupa-form reliquaries were used during the Tang dynasty by priests performing ceremonial worship. Ancient paintings show vessels like this placed on altars in front of Buddha images. Such containers usually held relics of a Buddhist saint (Sarira), or small precious objects that represented these persons. The domed cover is surmounted by a stupa-form knob symbolizing different stages of Buddhist existence. A similar reliquary was discovered in 1983 among the remains of a Tang dynasty pagoda in the vicinity of the Longmen cave temples at Loyang.