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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Greensboro, NC
Posts: 1,083
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This piece was so unsual and unlike anything I had seen before I picked it up simply for the curio value. However, I think it has a little age to it(at least pre-1940's) and seems to be a ceremonial object. It has one brass ring left that is affixed to the circular portion of this object so I think it may have been used in dancing. Any ideas as to origin of this piece?
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#2 |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 30
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Has a mandala so I'm guessing somewhere Buddhist.
Possibly Tibetan or Bhutanese ritual item? |
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#3 |
EAAF Staff
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 7,200
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I'm thinking more Hindu because the wheel has not eight btu 12 spokes, and thus I am thinking the wheel of samsara (although I must admit it does not rule out Buddhist necessarily). These are more seen in Nepalese and Indian iconography.
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#4 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: College Park, MD
Posts: 186
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The Sanskrit term for axe is parashu, and similar axes did find their way into Tibetan Buddhism. But such an axe often appears as an attribute of Ganesha (perhaps explaining the trunk-like hilt here).
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#5 |
Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,893
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Hi Rick,
This certainly does appear like a Tantric ritual weapon, and I am inclined to think Tibetan. The symbolic elements of the motif as mentioned suggest the standard Buddhist/Hindu Tantric forms, the wheel (twelve spokes, nidana in Sanskrit, tendrel in Tibetan), the fish, the lotus. The axe type blade resembles the 'kattrka', a Tibetan ritual chopper which is used to symbolically 'cut off ignorance' (wouldn't this concept work well these days!!! ![]() You really do find unusual objects there Indy!!! ![]() All the best, Jim |
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