Cleveland Museum of Art

Palanquin Ring

Date

1100s–1200s

Medium

bronze

Culture

Cambodia, probably Angkor

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

When members of the royal family or priesthood traveled in a public festival procession to make offerings at a temple or participate in a ceremony, they would be carried in a palanquin, or a covered litter. Portable objects of veneration, such as bronze images or a sacred fire, were also carried on palanquins. The palanquins had wooden poles, hanging seats or raised platforms, and bronze fittings cast in intricate forms and gilt, lending the palanquins a sumptuous quality. This ring, which supported a suspended seat, would have hung on a hook attached to a wooden pole. The body of the ring is shaped in the form of a pair of nagas , or serpents. The flanges, or protrusions, on the top and sides are stylized spines of the serpent’s body, and the heads rear up on either side. In a richly textured cluster of separately cast figures on both sides of the ring are images of composite bird-human, monkey-human, and elephant forms.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.