Description

The Magnificent Chinese Jade Pagoda

Mae Chang Koh, 2017        72 pages

As the youngest daughter of 10 children and 5 daughters, of John Wenti Chang, Mae was asked by him on her 18th birthday to help him write the book on his beloved Pagoda collection. The centerpiece of this jade collection is the Jade Pagoda that took the blood and sweat of 150 Chinese jade artisans over ten years to complete. It was carved from the largest jadeite boulder ever mined from a quarry in Northern Burma (Myanmar). These jade workers labored between 1922 and 1933 by hand-and-foot power, using only the crudest of tools to carve the most intricate spectacle in the world today. The pagoda was not only the lifetime realization of the dream of jade connoisseur Chang Wen Ti but also an intended icon for world peace and friendship that Chang had so fervently promoted.