Hajni Elias is an affiliated lecturer in Chinese art and material culture in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge. She was previously senior international researcher in the Chinese Works of Art Department at Sotheby’s.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Heaven’s Storehouse: Geographical, Social, and Religious Landscape of the Southwest2. Tomb Art from the Southwest3. Cliff Tomb Burial and Decorated Stone Sarcophagi4. Fun at Funerals5. Intimacy and the Afterlife6. Commemorating the Dead for the LivingAfterwordAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Southwestern tomb reliefs, clay figurines, and cemetery stelae here become springboards to vignettes about (for example) indigenous salt miners, bare-chested entertainers, and increasingly powerful regional governors, respectively. Yet as Elias adeptly argues, these artifacts aren’t just ideal representations or afterlife fantasies; they’re preserved pictures of daily life and lived ritual.

Hajni Elias is an affiliated lecturer in Chinese art and material culture in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge. She was previously senior international researcher in the Chinese Works of Art Department at Sotheby’s.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Heaven’s Storehouse: Geographical, Social, and Religious Landscape of the Southwest2. Tomb Art from the Southwest3. Cliff Tomb Burial and Decorated Stone Sarcophagi4. Fun at Funerals5. Intimacy and the Afterlife6. Commemorating the Dead for the LivingAfterwordAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Southwestern tomb reliefs, clay figurines, and cemetery stelae here become springboards to vignettes about (for example) indigenous salt miners, bare-chested entertainers, and increasingly powerful regional governors, respectively. Yet as Elias adeptly argues, these artifacts aren’t just ideal representations or afterlife fantasies; they’re preserved pictures of daily life and lived ritual.

Hajni Elias is an affiliated lecturer in Chinese art and material culture in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge. She was previously senior international researcher in the Chinese Works of Art Department at Sotheby’s.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Heaven’s Storehouse: Geographical, Social, and Religious Landscape of the Southwest2. Tomb Art from the Southwest3. Cliff Tomb Burial and Decorated Stone Sarcophagi4. Fun at Funerals5. Intimacy and the Afterlife6. Commemorating the Dead for the LivingAfterwordAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

Southwestern tomb reliefs, clay figurines, and cemetery stelae here become springboards to vignettes about (for example) indigenous salt miners, bare-chested entertainers, and increasingly powerful regional governors, respectively. Yet as Elias adeptly argues, these artifacts aren’t just ideal representations or afterlife fantasies; they’re preserved pictures of daily life and lived ritual.