The So-Called Nestorian Crosses

By Fr. Dale A. Johnson

In the previous two papers in this series, I have hopefully established the mutual influences of Christianity on Buddhism and Buddhism on Christianity in China from the 7th to 14th centuries. This spiritual cross fertilization demonstrates one of the principle reasons Christianity in China eventually was absorbed into Buddhist and Taoist beliefs and practices. It became a victim of its own synchronistic practices. I believe this happened shortly after 845 AD when Christianity fell out of favor with the imperial government. Christians adopted Taoist and Buddhist behaviors and beliefs. It was not a giant step for most Christians. Gauanyin, a female Chinese deity had been adopted as a symbol of Mary. Jesus was a bodhisatva, an enlightened being. Christian festivals of Easter and Christmas were enshrouded in Chinese symbols. Even the Cross itself was surrounded by the lotus, the dragon, and clouds, a triade of Buddhist/Chinese imagery.

In November of 2004 I traveled to Hong Kong to the University of Hong Kong museum where I was a guest of the curator Dr. Peng. I was given permission to photograph and study the so called Nestorian Crosses. Within the first few moments of gazing upon this collection of over 1000 pieces I was struck by two impressions. First of all, many of the crosses were not Nestorian at all but Buddhist and Manichean. Second, most were created for the purpose of stamping bread, clay, or even wax. 

I read in a small brochure describing the collection "The Mongolian dig them constantly out from old graves or somewhere else; they know nothing about their history, carry them around on their belt, especially the women. When they leave their residence, to go to the meadow, they seal there doors with loam, where they use this cross as a seal." (1)

This was written by P. Antoin Mostaert (1881-1971) about the Mongolian use of the bronze stamps and seals in Ordos Region in the first half of the 20th century. The crosses shown here, come from the Yuan-Dynasty (1271-1368) when China was under Mongolian rule. 


The Museum and Art Gallery of the Hong Kong University, preserves one of the most extensive collections of remains from the Ordos region north of the Great Wall. Collected by a British postal inspector, F.A. Nixon, who donated the collection to UHK around 1949. Many of the crosses are elaborately decorated with swastikas, a motif

that goes back almost five thousand years, as seen on an earthenware flask from 2500 BC exhibited in the same museum. The flask is crudely decorated with swastikas that predate Buddhism. Other bronze stamps are shaped like doves, which could be a Christian symbol for the Holy Spirit but it could equally be a symbol of Buddhism as a popular image of good fortune. As a Syriac Orthodox priest, and having seen thousands of crosses over the years of various ages from the Syriac traditions, including the Assyrian Church of the East, I doubted the connection to Nestorian christians. Also, having spent the previous two years speaking and teaching in Buddhist monasteries about eastern Christianity gave me some familiarity with Buddhist symbols of the Tang and Song dynasties. These crosses appeared to be in some cases clearly Buddhist and perhaps Manichean.


The painting above is of a Tang Dynasty Christian monk-missionary who came from Persia. Christianity reached Tang dynasty China in the 7th century via monks from Syria, and the notable Nestorian Christian monument devoted to the Christian religion-faith's establishment in China during the reign of Tang Taizong in Xi-An is a material testimony to this fact. The dating of this painting is pre-1000AD and around the Tang dynasty period, and it is now housed in the British Museum in London. 

There are three crosses on the figure, one on the headband, one worn around his neck as a pendant, and another on top of the staff he bears in his left hand. If you look closely the crosses do not have the swaztika in the middle or other symbols on each arm as we see with most of the so-called Nestorian Crosses. Nestorian crosses are fairly plain as we see in the picture above. Compared to the so called crosses in the Hong Kong Museum, these are not similar; yet the crosses in the painting are Nestorian. We can only conclude that some of the crosses in the Hong Kong Museum are mislabled.

My first view of a Nestorian cross was in Xian China in 1989 during the Tianamen student revolt. I was in China to teach but it was a difficult time. My greatest joy was traveling to Xian where I sought out the Hall of Forest Museum and studied the 4 meter high Nestorian Stele. There I viewed a small Nestorian cross at the top arising out of a lotus, clouds, and surrounded by dragons. This cross is Christian and can be dated to the time of the erection of the stele on January 7, 781. The cross is simple and is ornamented only by rounded forms on the arms and top. It is a cross I have seen many times throughout the Syriac east in ancient monasteries and churches.

In May of 2004 there was an exhibition in London of photographs of Nestorian tombstones from the city of Quanzhou in Fujian province, South China. The tombstones are dated to the Mongol period of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and have inscriptions in Syro-Turkish, Phags-pa and Chinese; the evidence from the inscriptions shows that some members of the Nestorian community came from Central Asia. Many of the tombstones have crosses on lotus flowers and some of them show flying figures supporting crosses. The iconography of the flying figures shows connections with the representation of apsarasas in Chinese Buddhism and angels in Seljuk and Mongol art.


Once again we can see that there is no similarity to the crosses in the Hong Kong collection except in a vague sense. These are Christian crosses on Christian tombs. But the crosses in the Nixon collection may not be all Nestorian.

In the neighborhood of the hot salt-lake Issyk-kul, high among the mountains of Turkestan, are two cemeteries. On hundreds of the tombstones are crosses and inscriptions that mark Christian graves. They cover the period from the middle of the thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century. The inscriptions are in Syriac and in Turkish. The cemetery houses Christians from many lands-a Chinese woman, a Mongol, an Indian, a Uigur. There are references to the wisdom and gifts of some and to their devoted service. The word "believer" is added to the name, and there are expressions of affection and of hope. Among the inscriptions are the following:

"This is the grave of Pasak. The aim of life is Jesus our Redeemer "

"This is the grave of the charming maiden Julia"

"This is the grave of the priest and general, Zuma. A blessed old man, a famous Emir, the son of General Giwargis. May our Lord unite his spirit with the spirits of the fathers and saints in eternity"

"This is the grave of the church visitor Pag-Mangku, the humble believer" 

"This is the grave of Shliha the celebrated commentator and teacher, who illuminated all the monasteries with light; son of Peter the august commentator of wisdom. His voice rang as high as the sound of a trumpet. May our Lord mix his pure soul with the just men and the fathers. May he participate in all heavenly joys.”

“ This is the grave of the priest Take who was very zealous for the church". (3)

These graves do not bear crosses like the ones we see in the Hong Kong collection. Again the crosses in the cemeteries are plain although sometimes surrounded by Chinese symbols.

Martin Palmer, author of The Jesus Sutras the recently published book on the Chinese Church of the East and who is also head of the International Da Qin project, a program surveying and preserving the eight-century remains of a church in western China, comments on the collection: “These delicate crosses, survivors of fallen empires and the harshness of the desert, stand as one of the most moving testimonies to the strength of the Church of the East in China. It reached out to people for whom nomadic life was the norm, created felt tent churches and brought from these people some of the loveliest Christian artifacts ever made.”

While some of the crosses in the Hong Kong Museum may be Christian, it will take a comprehensive survey to settle the question. This task is beyond my means and perhaps even ability. Yet, by a limited comparison with artifacts of the period when the crosses were made, I am deeply doubtful that many of the items are Christian. They may be in fact, a great testimony and contribution to Manichean and/or Buddhist history.

1. P. Antoin Mostaert C.I.C.M. (1881-1971)
2. K. Parry, ‘Angels and Apsaras: Christian Tombstones from Quanzhou’, TAASA Review [The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia] 12/2, 2003
3. the Rev. John Stewart, M. A., Ph.D, "Nestorian Missionary Enterprise" by (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1928). 

 
 
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Volume 1. Issue 11.