Asian Images Inside-Out: What the Contents of Statues Can Tell Us About Domestic and Communal Religion This lecture addresses a mysterious type of statue from ancient China that had a small niche carved into its back. These niches were filled with a variety of objects, including medicinal herbs, insects, and talismans with magical writing. What did these materials do for the statues, and why did people want statues filled with magical stuff? And why did many priests and philosophers (and even modern academics) regard these types of “enlivened” sacred images as distasteful, worthy only of museum storage or even destruction?