Gemstones as “Pure” Symbols: Archaeological Insights from the Buddhist Site of Tapa Sardar

Abstract New systematic studies of the clay monuments found by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan (hereafter IAMA ) in the 1960s and 1970s at the Buddhist archaeological site of Tapa Sardar, in the Ghazni area, are providing a deeper understanding of both the general context and the details of the decorations. This paper focuses on the row of thrones alternating with small stūpa s that were discovered in the pradakṣiṇāpatha around the Main Stūpa and assigned to the Late Period of the site (end of the 7th–8th/9th century CE ). Although still far from the goal of comprehensively explaining the complex iconographic program of these monuments, we started itemizing significant details that, in spite of their apparently marginal character, are likely to have had a strong impact on the monuments’ physical and symbolic definition. The rich array of their surface decoration, which combines a great variety of moulded motifs, was meant to convey the notion of preciousness. While the majority of those motifs may represent the portrayal of real jewellery, some stand apart for their unusual shapes, which depict gems in their natural state and may arguably be considered as having special emblematic meaning, such as the perfect, powerful, “pure” symbols of an unconditioned reality.