Another episode of Museum In Lotus, with Mr Kan and Mr Pino sharing the backstory of all the amazing personal treasures of Master Yun.
The featured treasure today is a monastery chest from late 15th century or early 16th century which is much older than the dowry chest featured in our first episode. It is therefore, at least 500 to 600 years old! This chest is made out of soft wood and is most likely used in the Potala Holy Palace in Lhasa by clergy to transport the goods and precious items to the palace.
There are sturdy iron straps around the chest that are hand-forged. It has a solid lid with an exquisite lock mechanism. This lock together with the elaborate decoration on the chest shows that items that were once stored in the chest were extremely valuable (possibly holy scripts or beautiful Buddhism paintings known as thangka). The chest also has a scalloped rim for decorative purposes. At the center part of the chest is the cartouche or medallion where we can see a burning jewels motif.
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| Burning Jewels |
If we look closely, we can see that actually the decorations have a focus on the number "3". There are 3 layers of the scalloped designed rim, 3 plain arrow shape iron straps to strengthen the joints of the chest. "3“ is an auspicious number which in Buddhism and Tibet, refers to the Sun, Moon and Star.
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| Three --> deep connections to Buddhism |
Furthermore, the act of bowing is repeated three times, the first to express devotion to the buddha, second to the Dharma teachings and third to the Sangha or the Buddhist community. These three together are known as the triple gems. Lastly, "3" can also represents the meaning of not speaking, hearing and seeing evil which are the core values a true Buddhist believer should follow.
Hope that this has been a fruitful episode of Museum In Lotus and you have learned more about the special artefacts in Lotus on Water. Stay tuned for more episodes of Museum In Lotus!
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| Stay prosperous and enjoy Laurent-Perrier |
~Yi Jie
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