Summary

A Ritual Box   (  )
Artist	Anonymous (Tibet)Unknown author
Title	A Ritual Box
Description	English: The surfaces of this silver and gilt box are richly embellished with symbols and mantras associated with the destruction of malevolent spirits. On the front is a symbolic representation of the protective female deity Lhamo. The precise function of the box within a ritual context is unknown, but it may have served as a storage container for other esoteric objects used within a tantric ritual. The inclusion of skulls as border motifs and the manacled creatures at either end are suggestive of both protection of the contents and the use of the box in purifying rites or exorcisms. The inscriptions include spells using Sanskrit words and Tibetan curses, such as, "May its voice sink in darkness and dissolve." Part of the ritual seems to have involved capturing the spirit, and part, subduing it. There may also be references to yogic activities, such as controlled-breathing exercises. The complexity of the decoration is indicative of a date in the 18th century, making this a relatively late example of the Tibetan tantric tradition.
Date	18th century date QS:P571,+1750-00-00T00:00:00Z/7
Medium	silver with gilding and turquoise
Dimensions	height: 30.5 cm (12 in); width: 30.5 cm (12 in); depth: 15.2 cm (5.9 in) dimensions QS:P2048,30.5U174728 dimensions QS:P2049,30.5U174728 dimensions QS:P5524,15.2U174728
Collection	Walters Art Museum    Native name Walters Art Museum Location Baltimore, United States of America Coordinates 39° 17′ 48″ N, 76° 36′ 58″ W   Established 1934  Website thewalters.org Authority file : Q210081 VIAF: 128918374 ISNI: 000000040373611X ULAN: 500279110 LCCN: no00096900 GND: 16029354-6 WorldCat institution QS:P195,Q210081
Accession number	57.2299
Place of creation	Tibet
Object history	Kathmandu, Nepal [date and mode of acquisition unknown] John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore, Winter 1983, by purchase 2007: given to Walters Art Museum
Exhibition history	Desire and Devotion: Art from India, Nepal, and Tibet in the John and Berthe Ford Collection. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque. 2001-2003.
Credit line	gift of John and Berthe Ford, 2007
Source	Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork
Permission (Reusing this file)	This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page. The Wikimedia Foundation has received an e-mail confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by a Volunteer Response Team (VRT) member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket #2012021710000834. If you have questions about the archived correspondence, please use the VRT noticeboard. Ticket link: https://ticket.wikimedia.org/otrs/index.pl?Action=AgentTicketZoom&TicketNumber=2012021710000834 Find other files from the same ticket:

Licensing

This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Walters Art Museum as part of a cooperation project. All artworks in the photographs are in public domain due to age. The photographs of two-dimensional objects are also in the public domain. Photographs of three-dimensional objects and all descriptions have been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License. In the case of the text descriptions, copyright restrictions only apply to longer descriptions which cross the threshold of originality. العربيَّة | English | français | italiano | македонски | русский | sicilianu | +/−

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