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22.   Headstone of Mrs. Yap
Yuan dynasty (1272—1368)
Quanzhou Maritime Museum
Ricci 22  KP 063 Z7

The Phags-pa inscription reads: The grave of Mrs Yap. Phags-pa was a script named after a Tibetan Buddhist monk who devised it for the Mongols in 1269. The cross is set over a lotus flower within a panel shaped at the top. The inscription appears below the cross, enclosed in a separate panel, while the outer border with its scroll design encloses the whole.

Quanzhou became a sea-port of major international significance during the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1272—1368). The Christian material available for study at the Museum almost all dates to this period. The fact that some of the inscriptions are in Phags-pa puts the dating of these stones beyond all doubt into a very short historical time-frame, when the script was used by administrative officials on the Mongols’ behalf.