Tashilhunpo Monastery: Five-Skull Crown
Oyster shell
Tashilhunpo Monastery: Five-Skull Crown
CHINA, Tibet, Shigatse
Originally kept in Tashilhunpo Monastery, this five-skull crown was later sent to the Qing Imperial Palace by a Gurkha in 1793.
The skulls on the crown are made from oyster shells which are sewn onto a red band and connected by two rows of pearls and a few beads made from coral and lapis lazuli. Above each skull, there is an image of a lotus pod surrounded by a flame pattern. The yellow label indicates that the crown was accepted as a gift by the imperial palace. At one end of the red band, there is a mantra written in black ink. The crown is kept in a wooden box, whose lid has a text narrating the provenance of the crown in Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts, page 333.
Cite this article:
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Youji and Pokorski, Stefanie and Mankuang and Fan, Wen,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Artifacts },
pages = 333,
title = {{Tashilhunpo Monastery: Five-Skull Crown}},
volume = 18,
year = {2016}}