We learn a lot about the lost cultures of the ancient world from how they treated their ings after death. These tombs and rituals are often the best preserved artifacts from that culture, and rarely is such care taken, or expense spent, on a single event.
Royal burials around the world are of course, therefore, an expression of that culture, and therefore such burials are wildly different, filled with culture-specific touches and with diverse rituals. For most royals, death is as grand as life.
Some are buried in pyramid chambers inside gold-covered coffins, and some are buried under resplendent marble mausoleums. In many cultures around the world, communities have believed in the afterlife, and their kings must be richly adorned in the next world, as in this.
As a result, kings and queens, princes and princesses have been buried with lavish essentials and royal gems. One example of extravagant burial sites and shrouds is the Jade Burial Suits of Prince Liu Sheng and his wife, Princess Dou Wan, of the Han Dynasty.
The Burial Armor of Han Royals
These jade burial suits are huge, and they are made of multiple plates of precious stones which are threaded together in silver and gold. These jade burial suits were made elaborately to stop the decay of the royal corpses so that their tombs could survive for centuries.
Jade Suits have, in fact, been used for Chinese burials for many centuries. The first records of Jade Suits date all the way back to 320 AD.
However, the archaeological proof and evidence of Jade burial suits in China go even further, a millennium back from recorded history. While there was some circumstantial proof and literary mentions of Jade Burial suits, concrete proof of their existence only came up in 1968 when the twin tombs of Prince Liu Sheng and his wife, Princess Dou Wan, were discovered.
There must have been other royal tombs with similar Jade suits, but this tomb was important because it was undisturbed: the evidence was there for all to see.
The tombs were so important that they were considered the most important discovery in 20th-century Asian archaeology. The twin tombs were discovered in Hebei Province. The tombs were concealed between two brick walls that were separated inside by an iron wall. The tombs were undamaged and undisturbed because they were in a corridor packed with stone.
The Jade Burial suits are marvelous and precious. These suits are created with plates of Jade and sewn together with gold threads. The suit of the princess is sewn together with silver threads.
These Jade Burial suits are rare archaeological finds because they were so difficult to make. Since the discovery of the first Jade Burial suits, there have been only a few more discoveries. The total number of Jade Burial Suits discovered through archaeology is still very limited, fewer than twelve in total.
These jade suits are made of more than a thousand jade plates. In the ancient era, this would take a decade to make because of the pattern and detailing needed.
Even the most experienced jade smith would take a lot of time to make such elaborate burial costumes for the royal family. From the studies that have been done on these suits, the detailing was done to indicate the rank of the royal buried in it.
The tradition of Jade and gold suits continued for many years. In AD 223, Emperor Wen of Wei finally ordered the artisans to stop making jade suits for royal burials.
One of the reasons why he stopped the tradition was the robbing of tombs and the burning of the suits by tomb raiders. These people would burn the suits to recover the gold thread used in them and make profits out of it.
The Surpassing Importance of Jade
The use of Jade Burial suits for the process of royal burials was not just traditional but scientific too. Jade was believed to be a good luck stone that kept negative spirits away from the bodies. Similarly, it was also believed that Jade had preservative properties for the soft tissues of the body. Thus, the bodies and souls of the royals would be preserved. However, as time passed, the dead bodies still decayed.
Today, scientists are looking into the porous nature of Jade and its ability to preserve DNA from dead bodies by their imprints and contact. If the DNA is preserved in the pores of the Jade suits, scientists and historians can find out more about the Han dynasty and other royals of the family tree. In a way, through DNA preservation, the Jade suits give immortality to the royals of the Han dynasty.
These Jade suits were no ordinary suits. They were very elaborate and had twelve different parts. The parts were divided into face, head, front and rear portions, arms, gloves, leggings, and feet. There were even Jade pieces to plug into the crevices of eyes, ears and mouth so that nothing bad could enter the suit or the dead body.
Why the tomb raiders raided such tombs is also no surprise. There were two thousand jade pieces and a huge amount of valuable gold thread. A huge quantity of gold thread can be stolen and sold for massive profits in today’s money. These suits even include solid gold nails, which are more precious and extravagant.
There is ample evidence that these Jade Burial suits were a part of a long Chinese tradition. Historians found not only the burial suits but also the ancient handbook for making these suits so that the tradition could be preserved. The Later book of Han is one such book that has the design standards and process of creation. However, the design standards of these suits differed from one to the other.
For example, the burial suits of kings and queens were threaded in solid gold. Princesses and lesser royals had burial suits made of Jade and silver. Further down the family tree, children of nobles and courtiers had jade burial suits pieced together with copper thread. Some aristocrats even had silk-threaded burial suits, as silk was seen as precious in Ancient China.
Today, Jade Burial suits are the national treasure of China, and you can see these displayed at different museums of the country. The burial suits of Prince Liu Sheng and his wife, Princess Dou Wan, can be seen at the Museum of Hebei. Other museums of China also have pieces or complete burial suits from the bygone era.
Top Image: Jade Burial Suit from the western Han region, from a tomb named as that of the King of Chu. Source: Gary Todd / Public Domain.
By Bipin Dimri
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