This is a reliquary in the shape of a casket. Reliquaries of this kind were prevalent in China from the Sui dynasty (581–618) and through to the Northern and Southern Song dynasties (960–1279). In India, relics of the Buddha were largely comprised of cinerary remains. Cremation was not a predominant practice in China, however, and thus relics were conventionally bone relics. In turn, relics in China were often interred in reliquaries modeled after funerary caskets. 
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