BURIED IN GEMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 13 (Supplement)

BURIED IN GEMS.

AN EMPRESS' .COFFIN. TALES OF FABULOUS WEALTH. HIDDEN IN CHINESE TOMBS.

(By HALLETT ABEND in "New York Times.")

For the first time in history there has been published a list of the magnificent and almost priceless jewels which, for centuries, it has been the custom to bury with the body of deceased Chinese rulers, and thia list shows that the ghouls who violated the tomb of the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi last June must have secured plunder valuable enough to pay off all of China's debts.

Always heretofore the lists of jewels and precious objects included in the tombs of deceased members of China's Imperial dynasties have been kept as State secrets, for never before has a tomb been violated. But last summer's robbing of the tomb of Tzu Hsi and other members of the ousted Manchu dynasty has brought to light a list of jewels which proves that not even the Egyptian Pharaohs were buried with more magnificence. If the Ming and Manchu tombs, grouped in two valleys within a short radius of Peking, all contain treasures comparable to those interred with the famous Dowager Empress of Boxer days, then China's Imperial sepulchres hold the most magnificent collection of jewels in the world.

The list of jewels put into the coffin of Tzu Hsi, who died about twenty years ago, has been made public by Li Yingchou, the nephew and heir of Li Lienying, who, as the favourite eunuch of the famous woman who ruled China for many decades, became one of the richest men of his time.

Id Lien-ying assisted at the rites of preparing the body of the Dowager Empress for bural, and was present from the sealing of the coffin until the sealing of the "£1,600,000 tomb. He left a diary giving a detailed inventory of the contents of the Imperial casket. This diary, divested of Oriental phraseology, reads in translation approximately as follows: Mattress of Gold. Before the Bmpress Dowager was laid in her coffin, the bottom was spread with a mattress of gold thread, seven inches thick, in which was woven an embroidery of pearls. On top of the mattress was laid a silk embroidered coverlet which was strewn with pearls. In the pearl layer was «i lace sheet of pearls, into which was woven a figure of Buddha. Sprinkled over this sheet and through the interstices of the gold-thread mattress were 10,500 seed pearls, rubies and sapphires, each to the weight of four chien (a trifle more than half an ounce), 67 hyacinths, 203 small emeralds and 200 pieces of white jade. At the head there was placed a jade ornament duplicating the large leaves of the lotus, and at the foot a similar ornament, life eized, duplicating in apple green jade the lotus blossom. ' .These were arranged in their places, and then the body was lifted into the coffin, the head of the Dowager Empress resting on the jade lotus leaves and her feet resting on the lotus flower. She was dressed in a ceremonial robe on which pearls wew> embroidered with. ggd thread, and over that §he ;woi£ gn

embroidered jacket with a robe of pearls; also a rope of pearls encircled the body nine times to keep the garments iii place. Emerald of Fabulous Value. In her hands she held a lotus flower carved from one large emerald, and this weighed a little more than thirty-six ounces. (A stone of thin size, it" of good quality, would be worth -Cir>oo Mexican an ounce, without including the value of the carving.) There was also on her breast a mirror set with 800 pearls and •'!•"> rubies and sapphires. Eighteen small images of Buddha, all encrusted with ]>earls, were held in her arms. These wore all gifts of private individuals and did not include the official list of gifts.

The private funeral gifts having been so disposed, the body was covered with the sacred Tolo pall, on which were written prayers in the Manchu script.

A chaplet of pearls was placed upon the head, and on either side of the body over the palJ were disposed 108 gold and carved gem Buddhas.

On the right and left sides of the feet were placed one watermelon and two sweet melons of jade and gems, and there were also jewel-encrusted gold fruits imitating peaches, pears, apricots and dates —these last to the number of 200.

At the last moment a Manchu princess entered the room and placed by the body eight figures of galloping horses, all carved from rubies, and eighteen Buddhist Lohan, all jewel encrusted. Literally Buried in Jewels. The interstices were then sprinkled with seed pearls, carved jades and small rubies, emeralds and sapphires, until all was level, then was spread a network covering of woven pearls, and finally the inner lid of the casket was fixed into place and officially sealed. When this treasure-crammed coffin was placed in the mausoleum it was guarded on either side by twenty-seven carved gold Buddhae, each weighing eight ounces, and by twenty-seven Buddhas carved from gems, each weighing six ounces.

The diary contains no list of the contents of the large burial chamber in which the coffin was finally deposited, but it is known that this immense room was crowded with costly offerings—golden figures, carved jades and gemencrusted objects of exquisite workmanship and rare beauty. All of this tremendous treasure has now been looted and scattered. A few pearls and jades, to the value of about £800,000 Mexican have been recovered from individual soldiers or military officers who participated in the looting, and several curio and jade dealers here and in Tientsin have voluntarily given up to the authorities jewels which they admitted having purchased from the ghouls. Never before in the history of phina has an imperial tomb been violated, though these tombs have been known to hold incalculable riches.