Alms bowls of this type was used in Buddhist rituals, cf. two related examples both cast in openwork and impressed with Qianlong marks; the first included in the exhibition catalogue, Monarchy and its Buddhist Way, Tibetan-Buddhist Ritual Implements in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, p. 178, no. 86; and the other illustrated in ultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Beijing Palace Museum, Forbidden City Press, 1992, p. 178, no. 134.