The Kanishka Stupa (Urdu: کانشک اسٹوپ)was a monumental stupa established by the Kushan king Kanishka during the 2nd century CE in today's Shaji-ki-Dheri on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan. The stupa was built during the Kushan era to house Buddhist relics, and was among the tallest buildings in the ancient world. The stupa is also famous for its Buddhist relics, which were transferred to the U Khanti Hall at Mandalay Hill, in Mandalay, Burma after their discovery.

History

Background

According to Buddhists the building of the stupa was foretold by the Buddha: The same story is repeated in a Khotanese scroll found at Dunhuang, which first described how Kanishka would arrive 400 years after the death of the Buddha. The account also describes how Kanishka came to raise his stupa:

First stupa (150 CE)

The original Kushan stone stupa was probably built after the death of Kanishka the Great, between 150 and 300 CE, but probably circa 151 CE, with a shape similar to the contemporary Loriyan Tangai stupas and the addition of schist reliefs.

Second stupa (4th century CE)

The stupa was rebuilt under Kushan rule in the 4th century CE into a cruciform stupa with a tower-like structure, with four staircases and four corner bastions, and possibly pillars at each corner. The stupa's symmetrically cross-shaped plinth measured 175 ft, though the plinth had large staircases at each of the stupa's sides. In total, the base of the stupa may have spanned 272 ft on each side. The plinth was likely decorated with sculpted reliefs, while niches built into the dome's four cardinal points was inlayed with precious stone. The tall wooden superstructure was built atop a decorated stone base, and crowned with a 13-layer copper-gilded chatra. Modern estimations suggest that the stupa had a height of 400 ft.

Reconstruction

The stupa's wooden superstructure was rebuilt atop the stone base, and crowned with a 13-layer copper-gilded chatra. In the 5th century CE, stucco imagery was probably added to the site, in keeping with contemporary popularity for Buddhist imagery.

Destruction

Sung Yun noted in the early 6th century that the tower had been struck by lightning at least three times, having been rebuilt after each strike. The tall stupa with a copper top acted as a lightning rod. This propensity to attract lightning strikes may explain the dearth of any surviving examples of wooden-tower stupas. In 726 CE, the Korean pilgrim Hyecho visited Gandhara and saw the Kanishka monastery and stupa, of which he said in his Memoir of the pilgrimage to the five kingdoms of India : "The monastery is called Kanishka. There is a great stupa which constantly glows. The monastery and the stupa were built by the former king Kanishka".

Excavations

The stupa was discovered and excavated in 1908–1909 by a British archaeological mission under David Brainard Spooner, and led to the discovery in its base of the Kanishka casket, a six-sided rock crystal reliquary containing three small fragments of bone, relics of the Buddha (which were transferred to Mandalay, Burma) and a dedication in Kharoshthi involving Kanishka.

Contemporary accounts

In the 400s CE, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian visited the structure and described it as "the highest of all the towers" in the "terrestrial world", which ancient travelers claimed was up to 560 ft tall, though modern estimates suggest a height of 400 ft. In 520 CE, Sung Yun describes the stupa in the following terms:

Legacy

The stupa is believed to have influence later constructions of "tower stupas" throughout ancient Turkistan. The construction of wooden towers topped with metal chatras made such buildings act as lightning rods, which could explain why such towers have all but disappeared.

Current status

The site has not been preserved. The location was re-identified in 2011. It is located outside the Gunj Gate of the old Walled City of Peshawar and is called Akhunabad.