Famen Temple Pagoda: Bowl
Gilt silver
Famen Temple Pagoda: Bowl (bottom)
Famen Temple Pagoda: Bowl
CHINA, Shaanxi, Baoji; Tang dynasty
Discovered in the underground palace of Famen Temple Pagoda in 1987, this bowl was once used in the ceremony of bathing the baby Buddha. It was commissioned by Emperor Xizong (reigned 873–888) of the Tang dynasty.
The bowl is decorated with four sunflower petals on the exterior, and lotus petals on the interior. Inside each sunflower petal are two flowers, decorated with a pair of mandarin ducks surrounded by floating clouds and leaves. The bottom features a similar design.
Two heads of beasts appear on both sides of the bowl, each with the Chinese character for “king” on its forehead. They have rings in their mouths that are connected to larger rings on the sides of the bowl. The stemmed foot is decorated with 24 lotus flowers. There are the characters “Jiangxi” on the exterior of the base, indicating its place of origin.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts, page 89.
Cite this article:
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Youji and Pokorski, Stefanie and Mankuang and Fan, Wen,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts },
pages = 89,
title = {{Famen Temple Pagoda: Bowl}},
volume = 18,
year = {2016}}