Item: Miscellaneous

Tibetan: པར་ཤིང་སྣང་བརྙན། སྣ་ཚོགས། Chinese: 版画 (多种)

(item no. 101504)

Origin Location	Tibet
Date Range	1800 - 1899
Lineages	Buddhist
Collection	Private
Catalogue #	Tibet Museum, Lhasa

Classification: Object/Concept

Interpretation / Description

Skullcup (Sanskrit: kapala): a human cranium used for fearsome tantric rituals in Northern Buddhism.

Jeff Watt 6-2005

The skullcup is made from a human skull and used in the Tantric rituals of wrathful deities. The empty skull represents impermanence along with the Buddhist philosophical concept of emptiness (Sanskrit: shunyata). The Tibetan inscription on the label of the storage container records that the cup was made from the cranium of Tenpai Wangchug (also known as Kedrup Chenpo), a great scholar and adept. It was offered to a Dalai Lama by Chungtsang Tulku of Dragyab Monastery in Chamdo, Eastern Tibet. (Text courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art).