A rare Tibetan half human skull Libation Bowl on painted bone stand with vellum label
A rare Tibetan half human skull Libation Bowl on painted bone stand with old vellum label : 'Chu-Kyuk = Tibetan Livation Bowl. Stands filled with blood (formerly human) near the altar in a Gompo from Lama of Lopchu Mungpu, D.H.RY: March 1905. Sikkim, India.'
19th Century
Size : 17cm dia. x 14 cm x 11.5 cm high
6¾ ins dia. x 5½ ins x 4½ ins high
19th Century
Size : 17cm dia. x 14 cm x 11.5 cm high
6¾ ins dia. x 5½ ins x 4½ ins high
The essence of Tibetan art is its iconography. Every feature has a clear and recognised meaning in Buddhist doctrine and practice. The skull cup, often full of blood, represents the offering or the surrendering of life energy. The human skeleton plays a positive part in Tibet. It is not the Western image of the one and only end. Buddhism teaches that all beings die many times over to be reborn to new existences full of new possibilities. Death is therefore a powerful and universal agent of transformation and spiritual progress which only the foolish nead fear. Buddhists treat bones whose owners have died as imbued with supernatural power. This skull cup also has the unusual addition of a painted bone stand.
A rare Tibetan half human skull Libation Bowl on painted bone stand with vellum label
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