CHINE, DYNASTIE TANG, FIN DU VIIEME-MILIEU DU VIIIEME SIECLE

The Bactrian camel was not indigenous to China. Refer to Ezekiel Schloss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture, Connecticut, 1977, vol. I, pl. 220, where he discusses the importation of tens of thousands of camels from the states of the Tarim Basin, Eastern Turkestan, and Mongolia. The Tang state even created a special office to supervise the imperial camel herds which carried out various state assignments, including military courier service for the northern frontier. The camel was also used by the court and the merchants for local transportation and, of course, were the 'ships of the desert' linking China to the oasis cities of central Asia, Samarkand, Persia and Syria.
See a very comparable model of Bactrian camel but with the glaze colours reversed, illustrated in C. Hentze, Chinese Tomb Figures, pl. 91, London, 1928. See another striding cream-glazed camel with dark brown fur, illustrated in Eskenazi, Tang, n. 38, London, 1987.