{ "id": "epyf1tv2mg", "slug": "anige", "title": "Anige", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history" }, { "id": "society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.china", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.china" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.china.yuan", "label": "Mongol conquest and the Yuan dynasty (1206 to 1368)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.china.yuan" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.china.yuan.arts-literature-and-scholarship", "label": "Arts, literature, and scholarship", "api_url": 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"path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1000", "label": "Asia (other) · 1000 to 1799", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1000" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1000.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1000.society" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1000.society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1000.society.history" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1000.society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1000.society.history.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1000.society.history.asia.china", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1000.society.history.asia.china" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1000.society.history.asia.china.yuan", "label": "Mongol conquest and the Yuan dynasty (1206 to 1368)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1000.society.history.asia.china.yuan" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Anige (阿尼哥, 1245–1306) was a Nepalese sculptor, painter, and master builder who served the Yuan dynasty for over forty years and directed Beijing's White Stupa.", "snippet": "Anige (阿尼哥, 1245–1306) was a Nepalese sculptor, painter, and master builder who served the Yuan dynasty for over forty years and directed Beijing's White Stupa.", "node": "society.history.asia.china.yuan.arts-literature-and-scholarship", "markdown": "# Anige\n\n**Anige** (阿尼哥, 1245) was a sculptor, painter, and master builder from the Nepal (尼波罗国) who spent more than forty years in the service of the [Yuan dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/yuan-dynasty), rising to head the imperial works office and directing the building of the White Stupa (Buddhist dome-shaped shrine holding relics) that still stands in Beijing.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718)\n\n| Key facts | |\n| --- | --- |\n| Name | Anige (阿尼哥); his countrymen called him 八鲁布; style name 西轩; posthumous name 敏慧[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718) |\n| Life | 1245–1306, dying at 62, in Yuan service for over forty years[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718) • [3](http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/7ac50ee494ef13d2cff274aadf71d8db/188f8e57029f743186a2f1aaffcae4c3.md) |\n| Origin | The Niboluoguo; grandfather Mi Nai'er (密迺迩), father La Kena (腊可纳)[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718) |\n| Principal offices | 人匠总管 (至元十年); then 光禄大夫, 大司徒, and head of the 将作院[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718) |\n| Best-known work | The White Stupa of the Great Temple of Long Life and Peace (大圣寿万安寺), about 50.9 m tall[3](http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/7ac50ee494ef13d2cff274aadf71d8db/188f8e57029f743186a2f1aaffcae4c3.md) • [4](http://www.silkroads.org.cn/portal.php?aid=12975&mod=view) |\n| Output | At least two stupas, several great temples, sacrificial shrines, one Daoist palace, and an armillary sphere with other astronomical instruments[3](http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/7ac50ee494ef13d2cff274aadf71d8db/188f8e57029f743186a2f1aaffcae4c3.md) |\n| Heirs | Six sons, including A Sengge (阿僧哥) (大司徒) and A Shula (阿述腊) (诸色人匠总管府达鲁花赤)[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) |\n\n## Origins and family\n\nThe biography in the *History of Yuan* (《元史》) states that Anige was a native of the Niboluoguo, and that from childhood he was quick to learn, memorized Buddhist scriptures, and, after hearing a single lesson on the proportional canons used by painters and modelers, could recite them at once; according to the same biography, as a young man he excelled at painting, sculpture, and the casting of metal images.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) According to the China Biographical Database, his grandfather was Mi Nai'er (密迺迩) and his father was La Kena (腊可纳), and he had the studio or style name Xixuan (西轩).[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718) According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage, he was born in 1245 in the Nepalese city of Patan.[5](https://wwj.beijing.gov.cn/bjww/wwjzzcslm/1730488/1730490/1730493/1730956/1730956/index.html) \n\n## Career\n\n**The golden stupa in Tibet.** In 中统元年 (1260), the emperor ordered the imperial preceptor Bahesiba (八合斯巴) to build a golden stupa in Tubo (吐蕃). The Niboluoguo was asked for a hundred artisans and produced eighty, but no one could be found to lead them. Anige, then seventeen, asked to go; when the elders objected to his age he answered, in the history's words, \"My years are young, but my heart is not.\" The preceptor was struck by him at first sight and put him in charge of the works. The stupa was finished the following year, and instead of returning home Anige took monastic vows as the preceptor's disciple and entered China with him.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203)\n\nAt his audience, the emperor asked what he could do. Anige replied that he took his own mind as his teacher and knew the arts of painting, modeling, and metal casting. The emperor showed him a damaged bronze acupuncture statue from the Mingtang, brought back as tribute from the Song, and asked whether he could restore it. In 至元二年 the new figure was complete, with its channels and vessels all present; the metalworkers admired it as the work of heaven and were ashamed into submission. Many images in the temples of Nanjing came from his hand, and he also made a seven-jewel steel Dharma wheel carried before the imperial carriages, and woven-silk portraits of the ancestral emperors that painting could not match.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203)\n\n**Offices.** In 至元十年 Anige first received the post of 人匠总管, with a silver seal and a tiger tally.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) A decree returned him to lay status and he was appointed Grand Master of Splendid Happiness (光禄大夫), Grand Minister of Works (大司徒), and head of the Directorate of Imperial Manufactures (将作院), with favor and gifts beyond all comparison.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203)\n\n**The White Stupa.** According to 元代尼泊尔艺术家阿尼哥-深度阅读, [Kublai Khan](https://www.edgepedia.org/kublai-khan) put Anige in charge of the design and construction of a great stupa for the temple of 大圣寿万安寺 in the Yuan capital. The brick-and-stone stupa is about 50.9 meters tall, its canopy about 8 meters across, hung with some 30 bronze openwork pendants and wind bells, its surface whitewashed so that it is known as the White Stupa.[13](https://news.bjd.com.cn/2025/08/10/11265795.shtml) • [5](https://wwj.beijing.gov.cn/bjww/wwjzzcslm/1730488/1730490/1730493/1730956/1730956/index.html) • [4](http://www.silkroads.org.cn/portal.php?aid=12975&mod=view) • [3](http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/7ac50ee494ef13d2cff274aadf71d8db/188f8e57029f743186a2f1aaffcae4c3.md) Over a career of more than forty years he directed a couple of stupas, some seven great temples, several sacrificial shrines, and a Daoist palace, and also created an armillary sphere and other instruments for the astronomical service.[3](http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/7ac50ee494ef13d2cff274aadf71d8db/188f8e57029f743186a2f1aaffcae4c3.md) \n\n## Political influence\n\nThe Directorate of Imperial Manufactures he headed, and the Directorates of Artisans of All Classes (诸色人匠总管府) established in 至元十二年 (1275), unified the management of construction, sculpture, casting, and craft production under his direction; one account states that the directorate oversaw eighteen bureaus, including the Bureau of Brahman Images (梵像局).[4](http://www.silkroads.org.cn/portal.php?aid=12975&mod=view) • [6](https://www.dushu.com/showbook/101155/1038958.html) A sentence in *History of Yuan*, chapter 16, shows the scale of the artisan establishment attached to him: artisans under Lv Hela (吕合剌), Anige, and Duan Zhen (段贞) who owed no labor service were sorted out and registered as commoners.[7](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷016) His institutional legacy also ran through training: [Liu Yuan](https://www.edgepedia.org/liu-yuan) (刘元) studied the \"Brahman images of the Western Heaven\" (西天梵相) under him and became a sculptor of such skill that the history devotes a passage to him.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203)\n\n## Death, titles, and heirs\n\nAnige died in 1306 at the age of 62, according to the CBDB record.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718) The biography records that at his death he was posthumously granted Grand Preceptor (太师), Commandery Grand Minister (开府仪同三司), Prince of Liang (凉国公), and Supreme Pillar of State (上柱国), with the posthumous name Minhui (敏慧).[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) A modern account adds that Emperor Chengzong suspended court for mourning, that his body was cremated in the Nepalese manner and buried under a stupa at Xiangshangangziyuan (香山冈子原) in Wanping County, and that the precise site of his grave has never been found.[8](https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s645b121be4b05339adcd40f5.html) • [9](https://www.fjdh.cn/wumin/2010/12/161703135682.html) The biography names six sons, of whom A Sengge became Grand Minister of Works and A Shula a darughachi of the Directorates of Artisans of All Classes; the CBDB row adds A Poge (阿珀哥), A Chuge (阿出哥), A Qila (阿起腊), and A Kaiya (阿凯牙).[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) • [2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718)\n\n## Assessment and disputed points\n\nThe history records his own answer that he took his mind as his teacher and the metalworkers' admission that his restored bronze statue seemed the work of heaven.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203) According to the *Yuan Dynasty Record of Painting and Sculpture*, roughly fifteen large building projects and nearly five hundred images were made or restored under him; of all these, only the Miaoying Temple White Stupa is confirmed to survive.[10](https://www.foxiang114.com/show-1263.html)\n\nSeveral facts remain disputed. His birth year is given as 1245 by the CBDB record and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage, but as 1244 by the *General History of China*.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718) • [6](https://www.dushu.com/showbook/101155/1038958.html) • [4](http://www.silkroads.org.cn/portal.php?aid=12975&mod=view) The date of his first appointment is also debated: the *General History of China* notes that the 诸色人匠总管府 was created only in 至元十二年, when Anige was appointed its head.[6](https://www.dushu.com/showbook/101155/1038958.html) A recent study proposes that the great jade wine vessel Dushan Dayuhai, about 3,500 kg and the heaviest surviving ancient Chinese jade carving, was made under Anige's leadership and design, but earlier scholars attributed it to jade artisans left from the Jin dynasty, so the attribution is unsettled.[11](https://peking.bjd.com.cn/content/s665bd32fe4b064178156b8db.html) The *Travels of Marco Polo* never names him, though it records that the Great Khan summoned from Nepal craftsmen skilled in building stupas, casting Buddhas, painting, and gold and silver work.[12](https://www.sicomedia.cn/2025/0625/49847.shtml)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe White Stupa's temple, rebuilt in 1457 under the Ming as Miaoying Temple (妙应寺), still stands around Anige's stupa, which is described as the earliest and largest surviving Tibetan-style stupa in China and a nationally protected site.[8](https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s645b121be4b05339adcd40f5.html) • [12](https://www.sicomedia.cn/2025/0625/49847.shtml) In 2002 the Nepal Anige Association presented a bronze statue of Anige to the temple.[5](https://wwj.beijing.gov.cn/bjww/wwjzzcslm/1730488/1730490/1730493/1730956/1730956/index.html) A 38-chapter biography of his artistic and scientific work was published in 2025.[12](https://www.sicomedia.cn/2025/0625/49847.shtml)\n\n## References\n\n1. 《元史》卷二百零三 (biography of Anige), Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷203\n2. China Biographical Database (CBDB), person 113718, 阿尼哥. https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0113718\n3. 《中国通史 第八卷 中古时代·元时期（下册）》: 建筑工艺上的非凡成就. http://szzy.7lue.cn/read/7ac50ee494ef13d2cff274aadf71d8db/188f8e57029f743186a2f1aaffcae4c3.md\n4. 元代尼泊尔艺术家阿尼哥, 丝绸之路网. http://www.silkroads.org.cn/portal.php?aid=12975&mod=view\n5. 北京市文物局: 中尼文化使者, 阿尼哥. https://wwj.beijing.gov.cn/bjww/wwjzzcslm/1730488/1730490/1730493/1730956/1730956/index.html\n6. 白寿彝《中国通史》第十八章第一节 阿尼哥, 读书网. https://www.dushu.com/showbook/101155/1038958.html\n7. 《元史》卷十六, Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷016\n8. 北京日报: 北京老城故事丨阿尼哥匠心建白塔. https://xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s645b121be4b05339adcd40f5.html\n9. 阿尼哥与尼泊尔佛像艺术的传入, 佛教导航. https://www.fjdh.cn/wumin/2010/12/161703135682.html\n10. 简述西天梵相的历史渊源和价值, 尼泊尔佛像网. https://www.foxiang114.com/show-1263.html\n11. 北京日报客户端: 阿尼哥的玉雕作品，您见过吗？ https://peking.bjd.com.cn/content/s665bd32fe4b064178156b8db.html\n12. 《阿尼哥在艺术和科技方面的贡献》新书发布, 南亚网视. https://www.sicomedia.cn/2025/0625/49847.shtml\n13. 11265795.shtml (news.bjd.com.cn). https://news.bjd.com.cn/2025/08/10/11265795.shtml\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Mongol conquest and the Yuan dynasty (1206 to 1368) › Arts, literature, and scholarship*\n\n*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/anige", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/anige.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Anige\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/anige. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Anige](https://www.edgepedia.org/anige)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/anige](https://www.edgepedia.org/anige). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Anige\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/anige. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Anige was a Nepalese sculptor, painter, and master builder who served the Yuan dynasty for over forty years and directed Beijing's White Stupa." }