Manuscript box with scenes of the story of the wise sage Mahosadha (Mahosadha-jataka)

A beautifully decorated box such as this would have held a handwritten copy of sacred Buddhist texts. The long, narrow format of the text pages dictated the shape of the box.

Most Buddhists say that they “take refuge” in the “Three Jewels,” namely the Buddha, the teachings (dharma), and the community of monks (sangha). In this gallery we can see representations of all three: the Buddha in Buddha images, the teachings in this manuscript box that would have enclosed texts of parts of the dharma, and the monkhood in the image of the monk Shariputra, one of the Buddha’s most important disciples.