Qing Imperial Palace: Trumpet
Bone and gilt copper alloy
Qing Imperial Palace: Trumpet
CHINA, Beijing; Qing dynasty
This trumpet, made from human thighbone, was used as a Dharma instrument in Tibetan Buddhism rituals. The bone is partially wrapped in black silk threads. The mouthpiece is decorated with gilded patterns of leaves and upright lotuses, and below, there is a ferrule which is decorated in a similar fashion. The gilt copper alloy bell features the head of a makara, and at the front it is plain with a simple bead pattern around the rim.
The thighbone trumpet produces a mournful sound, which is said to tame supernatural spirits.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts, page 264.
Cite this article:
Hsingyun, et al. "Qing Imperial Palace: Trumpet." Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts , vol. 18, 2016, pp. 264.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Youji, Stefanie Pokorski, Mankuang, and Wen Fan. 2016. "Qing Imperial Palace: Trumpet" In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts , 18:264.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Youji, Pokorski, S., Mankuang, & Fan, W.. (2016). Qing Imperial Palace: Trumpet. In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts (Vol. 18, pp. 264).
@misc{Hsingyun2016,
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Youji and Pokorski, Stefanie and Mankuang and Fan, Wen,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts },
pages = 264,
title = {{Qing Imperial Palace: Trumpet}},
volume = 18,
year = {2016}}
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Youji and Pokorski, Stefanie and Mankuang and Fan, Wen,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts },
pages = 264,
title = {{Qing Imperial Palace: Trumpet}},
volume = 18,
year = {2016}}