The religious beliefs of the royal family in the Qing Dynasty included Buddhism, Taoism, and Shamanism, but the main religion was Lamaism in Tibetan Buddhism.
The famous Yuhua Pavilion, Fanhua Tower, and Baoxiang Tower in the Forbidden City all enshrine a large number of Lamaist Buddha statues and magical instruments.
It is said that it is quite complete and has remained in its original state for hundreds of years.
Unfortunately, the general public is unlikely to see it.
The Buddhist cultural relics on display in the treasure hall, including pagodas, Buddha statues, mandalas, etc., can be "peeped through the tube".
Just say that the pagoda made of gold and precious stones, made by the Qing Palace Construction Office, is definitely a hundred times more beautiful than what you see in front of you.
Seeing the rough golden pagoda in front of him, Chen Wenzhe became a little interested and wanted to build one.
After all, he has made a lot of porcelain and bronze wares, but he has never made gold wares, let alone magical wares!
Of course, if he wants to make one, it must be a high-quality one.
He didn't need to design anything special, because there were already many patterns in the Qing Palace Building Office.
All this wealth was inherited by Chen Wenzhe through the Sui Marquis Pearl.
With just a little thought, Chen Wenzhe found a fine pagoda suitable for imitation.
The entire body of this pagoda is made of gold and is inlaid with pearls, turquoise, lapis lazuli, etc.
There is a central tower in the middle, surrounded by eight small towers, representing the four directions and four dimensions.
The tower is decorated with pearls and gems, showing the characteristics of royal crafts.
The treasures of this pagoda were originally enshrined in the Chonghua Palace Buddhist Hall.
Chonghua Palace was the residence of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty when he was the prince.
The pagoda contains a total of 85,000 grams of gold, 293 large pearls, and more than 500 pieces of various gemstones such as turquoise, red coral, and lapis lazuli.
The entire tower uses various techniques such as carving, hammering, and inlay, which is exquisite and exquisite.
All kinds of gems are embellished among them, making it even more noble and gorgeous. This is definitely a masterpiece among the large-scale pagodas built by the Qing Dynasty.
If this pagoda is copied, Chen Wenzhe can easily meet the conditions.
He has no shortage of gold, and his craftsmanship is not bad. With enough gems, what's the problem?
Thinking of this, Chen Wenzhe really planned to imitate a batch of Buddhist treasures when he had time.
Buddhism can flourish, and the various treasures spread throughout the world still have a certain guiding role.
The piece just now was still a pagoda. If it were a Buddha statue, it would be more exquisite and produced by the Qing Palace Building Office. The most important thing is that it is expressive.
Let's take a statue of Bodhisattva. It is made of gold, with brilliant colors and exquisite craftsmanship.
The Bodhisattva is inlaid with a total of 182 East beads, which is luxurious and gorgeous. It is one of the treasures among the large number of Tibetan Buddhist statues cast during the Qianlong period.
This statue was made of red gold (90% gold) by the building office in the 13th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty under special orders.
It is worth mentioning that the backlight of this image is embedded in glass, which was a very fashionable practice at the time.
If these are special and require special treatment, the products they make are all high-quality.
So judging from some ordinary things, it becomes even more obvious that it was produced by the Qing Palace Building Office and must be a high-quality product!
For example, the simplest artifact, a military weapon!
This thing is a "bottle, water bottle", which is one of the "eighteen objects" used by Buddhist monks for drinking water or purifying hands.
There are also some boxes, which are naturally sutra boxes, boxes used to store Buddhist scriptures.
Sutra boxes produced by the Qing Palace Manufacturing Office were generally made of gold and decorated with pearls, rubies, lapis lazuli and other beads, showing the royal aura of wealth and nobility.
There are also some offering bowls, such as a common offering bowl in Tibetan Buddhism. The bowl is made of white jade, and the cover and base are made of gold. They are integrated into one, making it even more valuable.
The bowl is made of white jade, and the lid is decorated with Tibetan mantras. The rest of the bowl is inlaid with turquoise. How is this so luxurious?
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Therefore, it can be said that everything used in the Qing palace is the most luxurious and exquisite product in history.
What's more, the magical instruments are all dedicated to the gods, and they will be carefully crafted and taken seriously.
For example, there are many forms of Buddhist niches in the Qing palace, and the pavilion style is the most commonly used one.
For example, a pavilion-style building imitating the traditional Han Dynasty is divided into two floors, with three rooms each used as Buddhist niches to enshrine statues.
This niche is made of gold, inlaid with turquoise and decorated with pearls. It is very luxurious.
There are also Buddha's nests. Tibetan monks and laypeople often carry small Buddhist niches with them in order to worship Buddha anytime and anywhere.
This kind of small Buddhist niche contains one or several small Buddha statues, commonly known as "Buddha's Nest".
Local Buddha's nests are generally made of copper, but in the Qing Dynasty palaces, they were mostly made of gold and silver, inlaid with turquoise, coral, lapis lazuli, etc., making them appear more luxurious.
Others include bottles, mandala and so on.
Various forms of bottles are very typical offering vessels in Tibetan Buddhism.
The mandala is an important dharma object for the practice and worship of Esoteric Buddhism.
The mandala produced by the Qing Dynasty is complex but not chaotic, easily reflecting the superb craftsmanship of the palace craftsmen.
"Boss, boss, these Buddha statues are not worth mentioning. Look at this box. There is only one gem in it."
"What?" Chen Wenzhe's thoughts were interrupted by Gao Qijing. He followed Gao Qijing's fingers and looked at the box not far away.
"What did you say? There's only one gem in it?"
The corners of Chen Wenzhe's mouth twitched. He naturally understood what Gao Qijing meant. Didn't he mean that the gems inside were very big?
But this is too big. No matter what quality the gem is, if it can reach a cubic size, it is a treasure.
After opening the box, Chen Wenzhe took a look and found that it was exactly what he thought. Such a big gem was definitely a treasure.
"How much gold did you get for it?"
"Hey, it's not much use!"
As soon as he saw Gao Qijing's performance, Chen Wenzhe knew that something was wrong, otherwise he wouldn't have such an expression.
"How much?" Chen Wenzhe didn't want to ask more, but there still had to be rewards.
If this treasure is really the same one as he thought, the reward will be huge.
"Five hundred and ten kilograms!" Gao Qijing said cheerfully.
Chen Wenzhe was speechless, and he confirmed that this was the largest sapphire discovered by Skaguo, and it seemed to be the largest in the world.
He remembered very clearly that the huge sapphire weighed 510 kilograms.
The value of such a large sapphire is definitely not low. It was estimated to be worth at least US$100 million at the time.
And this valuation is the valuation of the production area and has nothing to do with the market price.
You should know that Skar is known as the "Kingdom of Gemstones", and the Ratnapura region is the country's famous "Gemstone City".
In early 2016, a star sapphire "Adam's Star" weighing 1,404.49 carats was discovered in the area. This sapphire was known as the world's largest sapphire at the time.
However, this record was soon rewritten, because also in Ratnapura district, a sapphire weighing 2.5 million carats (about 500 kilograms) shocked the world.
According to a report by the British "Sun" at the time, in 2020, a man named Gameage hired workers to dig a well in his back garden in Ratnapura District, Sri Lanka.
As a result, the workers unexpectedly dug up a sapphire that was 100 centimeters long, 72 centimeters wide and 50 centimeters high.