The Great Ornament Of The World: The 5th Dalai Lama’s Reliquary

The dissertation takes the reliquary of the fifth Dalai Lama stored in the Potala Palace as the research object,and revolves around the historical background,the location and the time of the construction of this lofty spiritual mausoleum in the history of Tibetan Buddhism.the doctrine theory basis,participating craftsmen,materials used,craftsmanship,stylization,function and meaning of storage and lighting,etc.as well as the Tibetan and Chinese literature resources such as mchod song ’dzam gling rgyan gcig gi dkar chag,to do the comprehensive systematic research about this topic.First of all,it demonstrated that the construction of the reliquary of the Fifth Dalai Lama was a strategy or method of the Gelug Sect,especially Deshi Sangye Gyatso,to establish the dominance and status of Gelug sect in Tibet,so the establishment of this reliquary revealed very clear political intention at first.Secondly,as a type of stupa,the reliquary of the fifth Dalai Lama is gradually subordinated to the categories of Tibetan Buddhist stupa,Tibetan Buddhist pagodas,Indian pagodas,and ancient Indian pagodas,regardless of the discipline of religion.No matter from the discipline of religion,or from the buddhist doctrine Canon,they both have relatively complete theoretical basis about this topic.The thesis puts forward the viewpoint that the reliquary has been experiencing the function transformation from stupa,pagoda to the reliquary,and does the demonstration for this viewpoint with the support of documents and material relics.In addition,the Fifth Dalai Lama reliquary can be regarded as a living museum or a collection of traditional culture,and a historical witness of the exchanges between various ethnic cultures.In order to support this view,the paper classifies and summarizes the craftsmen of different nationalities and different types of work involved,and lists the materials used in the construction of the reliquary,and discusses the perfect combination of its modeling and art.Moreover,combined with the records in the literature,this study makes a comprehensive review of the weak link in the current academic research on Tibetan buddhist reliquary,that is,the religious rituals of the installation and opening of the reliquary,in order to lay the academic foundation for the unveiling of the mysterious veil of Tibetan buddhist reliquary.Finally,as the religious sacred object of the fifth Dalai Lama’s relics,the religious functions and meanings of the reliquary are analyzed in terms of its political significance,symbolic significance,and worship significance.The dissertation takes the Fifth Dalai Lama’s reliquary as the research object,and employs the methods of literature and objects to make small cuts into it,with using relevant theories methods and case studies,to make a tentative study about the entire Tibetan Buddhist reliquary phenomenon and also to pave the way or provide early accumulation about this topic.