Yongning Temple Stele, Buddhist stele in Tyr near Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Russia.
The Yongning Temple Stele is a stone monument now kept at the Arsenyev Museum in Vladivostok, Russia, with inscriptions on multiple faces in Chinese, Jurchen, Mongolian, and Tibetan scripts. It stands alongside a companion stele from 1433, and the two pieces are displayed together as a pair.
The Ming dynasty had this stele erected in 1413 to mark the founding of Yongning Temple by the eunuch Yishiha at the Nurgan military garrison on the Amur River. A second monument was placed at the same site around 20 years later, recording events connected to the same place.
The stone carries the Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum in four different scripts, showing how people from different backgrounds once shared the same place of worship. Visitors today can stand close to the stone in the museum and trace the four sets of characters side by side.
The stele is on display inside the Arsenyev Museum in Vladivostok, so it can be seen in any weather and from very close up. It is worth asking staff where the piece is located within the building, as the museum covers several rooms.
This stele is considered the last known large inscription in the Jurchen script before that writing system went out of use in the 15th century. Looking at the stone today means seeing one of the final traces of a script that no one continued to use after that period.
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