Staff Picks: Violent Offerings

In this occasional series museum staff introduce you to their favorite object in our collection. We rotate our galleries every six months, so we’ll have fresh picks when new objects go on view.

Cabinet for storing offerings, 1700-1800. Tibet. Painted wood. Museum purchase, 1997.17.a-.c.

Cabinet for storing offerings, 1700-1800. Tibet. Painted wood. Museum purchase, 1997.17.a-.c.

Facilities Manager Erik Cline has a penchant for the grotesque, which I guess is why he chose this Tibetan cabinet.

Erik Cline

Why do I like this object? Nothing too high-minded or intellectual here; just your average offerings cabinet decorated with flaming skulls,
intestines, flayed skin, severed limbs, eyeballs, and an ocean of freakin’ blood!

6 Responses to “Staff Picks: Violent Offerings”

  1. bittermelon  on September 7th, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    Me and Erik Cline are cut from the same cloth. Or should I say, from the same flayed skin?

    I love that “gore” is “acceptable” or prominent in Himalayan art; there is a real substantial Buddhist meaning and symbolism to all of it. Yay.

  2. Nancy  on September 7th, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    It’s all about the religious symbolism, right?

  3. janet  on September 11th, 2012 at 3:38 pm

    I guess it depends whether you’re Erik or bittermelon :)

  4. sea_air_uh  on September 18th, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    the symbolism being suffering?

  5. Betsy Berberian  on September 19th, 2012 at 11:07 am

    Thank you for posting the picture of this interesting cabinet! I can’t help but notice that some of these images painted hundreds of years ago are similar to popular tattoo designs of today.

  6. janet  on September 27th, 2012 at 11:50 am

    Thanks Betsy and sea_air_uh for your comments. The cabinet is intended to be used to store offerings to wrathful deities. You can read more here: http://67.52.109.59:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/id/20156

    Betsy, you’re right, there’s a rich vein of tattoo inspiration at the Asian Art Museum. That exact topic came up in another of our staff picks: http://www.asianart.org/blog/index.php/2012/08/09/staff-picks-achala-vidyaraja/. You might also be interested in this project, a documentary film on tattoos featuring some of our artworks.


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