A rare and finely-carved ritual conch trumpet, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period

English Private Collection.

This rare and exceptionally carved conch trumpet, a Buddhist ritual object with powerful connotations of both imperial and religious significance, represents one of the finest of its type. The body of the conch is carved with seven buddha figures, likely representing Shakyamuni Buddha and the six previous buddhas. Each sits on a double-lotus base, backed by a throneback, with beaded festoons hanging above and between them. Bands of lotus lappet run above and below, interspersed by beaded bands, and additional beaded bands run along the contours of the conch near the mouthpiece. A band of archaic keyfret and a band of alternating ruyi motifs are carved at the outer edges.

The overall design, composition, and style closely mirror an important carved conch trumpet gifted by the Qianlong Emperor to the Dalai Lama (most likely the Eighth Dalai Lama, who was recognized in 1762), and which is housed in the Potala Palace Collection, illustrated in Treasures from Snow Mountains: Gems of Tibetan Cultural Relics, Shanghai, 2001, p. 136, no. 56. The presence of at least two additional nearly-identical examples in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Monarchy and Its Buddhist Way: Tibetan Buddhist Ritual Implements in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, pp 154-155, no. 65, however, indicate that others were carved and likely gifted to other important lamas and dignitaries. Both the Potala Palace and National Palace Museum examples have stone-inlaid gilt mounts, but in at least one example in the National Palace Museum, a ruyi-motif border comparable to the one on the present work can just be seen.

The conch is considered within Tibetan Buddhism to be one of the 'Eight Auspicious Symbols' (Chinese: bajixiang); each symbol represents an aspirational fortuitous quality, and the group was derived from ancient Indian ideas of royalty and divinity. The conch trumpet, for example, was used by heralds to announce the presence, and by extension, power of ancient kings; within Buddhist thought, the sound of the conch trumpet suffused the dharma throughout the known world. Within the Buddhist art of China from the Ming dynasty onwards, the bajixiang was a common decorative element.