The 7 treasures of the Buddhism

flicker user dknisely

Although Buddhism is a religion of renunciation, the temples are very rich, holding precious items like gold-plated statues decorated with pieces of jewelry. The rich Buddhist worshippers and the merchants travelling along the Silk Road have been encouraged to make gifts to the temples they visited on their ways, thus leaving there pieces of silk, gems and other materials, and in particular the Sapta Ratna, the “Seven Treasures”.

At first conceived as symbols of the authority and sovereignty, like a wheel for the law, an elephant for the king and so on, they slowly changed to more mundane goods like gems and jewels. As a real sign of respect for the Buddha, the caravans transported these treasures to the numerous temples spread all other the Silk Road… and at range of marauding Nomads. The Sapta Ratna can inspire a GM wanting to offer good reward to plundering Nomads PCs, or as precious goods to be protected by courageous caravan guards or pious monks.

The Seven Treasures of the Buddhism were: Gold, silver, pearls, lapis-lazuli, rock crystal and most probably coral from the Mediterranean. The seventh could have been amber, diamond, agate, cornelian or ammonite.

These treasures would be found in Buddhist temples, should anyone want to plunder them. Caravans transported of course much more other precious goods like musk, glass, furs, gems, art work and so on.

[note: despite the temporary unavailibilty of Wind on the Steppes, I'll continue to feed this blog, although at a slower pace.]

The Desert Rats

Gobi Jerboa (www.factzoo.com)

Luce Boulnois tells the following anecdote in her book about the Silk Road:

There was in Khotan [a kingdom in the Tarim] a particular race of rats, with a golden and silver fur, which was somehow supernatural. The kingdom of Khotan was menaced by a vastly superior Hsiung-Nu army, and the king remembered that he never made any offering to theses rats. So did he and asked for their help. He saw in a dream a giant rat who told him that he shall not fear the enemy and attack the next day. So before dawn, the Khotani army started and attacked the nearby camping Hsiung-Nu. The Nomads jumped on their weapons and horses, but all their leather goods, belts, bow stings, armours and so on had been gnawed away. The Khotanis easily won the day and the Hsiung-Nu fled in panic. After this victory, the king of Khotan built a temple and never stopped offering to the desert rats.

This is an example of the kind of help one can request from a nature spirit. Of course, only a Great Spirit can involve so many rats against a huge payment, but the protecting ichchi of a colony could control enough rats for a smaller task or to help against a small party of enemies.

The desert rat could be the Gobi Jerboa, a kangaroo- like small rodent with big ears living in the cold desert (click on the picture to see the movie).

The Hanging Garden (a new e-zine)

Gianni Vacca, author of The Celestial Empire and prolific contributor to RP Gaming, started an e-zine called The Hanging Garden, “a free electronic zine aimed at providing reading material to the rpg enthusiast.” It presents a selection of material from the innumerable internet sources and difficult to find.

One of the themes of this very first issue is Central Asia, with a small contribution I wrote about the genesis of WotS and a scenario by Gianni, taking place in the Silk Road area and involving Chinese prisoners and Karluk Nomads. This scenario allows to play either party, using The Celestial Empire or Wind on the Steppes (at best both of them!). If you intend to play it as PC, don’t even start reading it.

More info on Gianni’s blog. I may add some comments.

The e-zine is in EPUB format for smart phones or tablets and can be found here. You can of course download suitable software to read it on your computer.