Lot 161
161
A Rare Damascened Iron Ritual Spoon and Tray
THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
A Rare Damascened Iron Ritual Spoon and Tray

TIBET, 16TH CENTURY

Details
A Rare Damascened Iron Ritual Spoon and Tray
Tibet, 16th century
The spoon in the form of a triangular basin issuing from the mouth of a makara, the handle separately cast with a coiled snake and vajra finial, the circular tray with a triangular basin at center framed by inlaid copper and silver line borders, surrounded by vignettes of severed heads amid scrollwork flanked by skulls, all incised and damascened in gold and silver
Spoon: 12¾ in. (32 cm.) long, tray: 9 in. (22.5 cm.) diameter
Provenance
Gérard Labre Collection
Literature
N. Bazin (ed.), Rituels Tibétains: Visions secrètes du Ve Dalai Lama, 2002, p. 158, cat. no. 126.
Exhibited
Paris, Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet, Rituels Tibétains, 2002/2003

Lot Essay

These two implements, the basin with a recessed triangular base and the triangular ladle, are used in a ritual where paper or dough effigies of demons (linga) are sacrificed with a ritual dagger, or phurbu. The manner of the ritual is explained in the illustrated Golden Manuscript produced for the Fifth Dalai Lama; see S. Karmay, Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama, London, 1988. Examples of various lingas appear on plates 48-51.

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