Manichaean stone reliefs of Shangwan village information

The Manichaean stone sculptures of Shangwan Village refer to eight Ming-Qing slabs found in Shangwan Village, Xiapu County, Ningde City, Fujian Province in 2009.^[1] Numbers A1, A2, B, C1, C2, D1, D2, E, which have been verified by scholars as the relics of Manichaeism (also known as Mingjiao in Chinese).^[2][3] These stone slabs were originally used to decorate the Three Buddha Pagodas and the Pangong Stone Pagoda. The inscriptions on the stone slabs indicate that the Three Buddhas Pagoda was built in the sixth year of Zhengde in the Ming dynasty. According to Huang Yizhao's Tahou Village Cultural Relics, the Three Buddhas Tower was originally three towers, one large and two small, which were later demolished during the Cultural Revolution.^[4]

After the news of the discovery of Manichaean deities in Fujian reached Iran, it aroused the interest of local religious scholars. Although Manichaeism originated in ancient Iran during the reign of the Sasanian Shahanshah Shapur I,^[5] it has long since disappeared in its native land, leaving almost no cultural relics. Therefore, Fujian has become the only place in the world where the statues and reliefs of Manichaeism are preserved.^[6] These statues and other Manichae relics discovered in Fujian during the same period are listed as one of the ten major discoveries in Fujian.^[7]