關於法門寺塔基地宮出土銀棱盝頂檀香木函的相關問題探討=On the Issues Related to the Silver-plated Sandalwood Casket with a Flat-topped Roof Unearthed from the Underground Palace of Famen Temple
The silver-plated sandalwood casket with a flat-topped roof unearthed from the underground palace of the Famen Temple is the outermost one of the eight-fold reliquaries of the finger bone sarira of Buddha. It had rotten away and fallen apart at the time of discovery, so it drew little attention at that time. The illustrated catalog Famen Si Zhenbao(Treasures of Famen Temple) completely published its fragments for the first time, which provided chances for the author of this paper to closely observe it and compare its motifs with that of other similar objects. This paper makes a comprehensive examination to the motifs of this casket and identified that these motifs included the Brahma and Indra worshipping Buddha, Bhaisajyaguru, Sakyamuni preaching and the scene of the Western Pure Land Paradise, etc.
