Kanishka Casket – Beautiful Ancient Buddhist Treasure In Gilded Copper

A. Sutherland  – AncientPages.com – The Kanishka Casket (known as the Kanishka reliquary) is a beautiful Buddhist treasure of gilded copper. The relic dates back to the first year of the reign of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, in 127 AD.

Kanishka casket, Asia, G33 South Asia British Museum, England. Image credit: Anthony Huan – CC BY-SA 2.0

It was discovered in a deposit chamber under the massive Kanishka stupa during British archaeological excavations in 1908 – 1909 in Shah-ji-Dheri on the peripheries of Peshawar, Pakistan. Chinese Buddhist pilgrims described this gigantic structure in the 7th century as the tallest stupa in India. It was indeed an enormous structure. The stupa is believed to have influenced later constructions of stupas throughout ancient Turkistan. These wooden towers, topped with metal chatras (chhatra (meaning “umbrella”),  made such buildings act as lightning rods.

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