Details

Object type

elephant's tusk

Place Associated

Asia, South East Asia, Myanmar (place of manufacture)

Date

before 1922

Materials

ivory, silver

Dimensions

overall: 1000 mm x 115 mm x 115 mm 12360 g

Description

This elephant's tusk with its embossed silver mount is carved with detailed scenes from a story from one of the lives of the Buddha. It tells of the demon Punnaka and the sage Vidhura, an incarnation of the Buddha. It is taken from one of the 550 Jataka tales that illustrate the Buddha's path to enlightenment and is called the Vidhura-Pandita Jataka. Burmese ivory carving began in the 1860s in the court of King Mindon in Mandalay. Larger carvings of whole tusks became common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of these carvings had a spiritual theme – wealthy patrons paid for the ivory and donated the finished piece to a temple as a good deed.

ID Number

1922.62.b.[1]

Location

Kelvingrove Every Picture Tells a Story Gallery