Buddhist Ritual Bell (1300s): Art, History and Details

Buddhist Ritual Bell (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This Buddhist ritual bell is called the "five-pronged" bell due to the four prongs bending toward a central prong at the end of the handle. This shape is a vajra, or lightning bolt, a powerful and important symbol in esoteric Buddhism, which originated in India, spread across Asia, and was practiced in Korea.

Object facts

• Title: Buddhist Ritual Bell
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze; with incised designs
• Dimensions: Overall: 17.8 x 6.6 cm (7 x 2 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1998.123

A detail from the museum

Called a vajra in Sanskrit, this implement is used in Buddhist rituals meant to destroy ignorance.

Collection credit

Gift of Mitsuru Tajima

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• Cunningham, Michael R. "Sacred Metalwork of Korea." Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 43, no. 5 (May 2003): 8–9.
• Choi, Eung-chon. “Craftsmen in Metal Arts in the Goryeo Dynasty [고려시대 金屬工藝의 匠人].” Misulsahak yeongu (2004): 171–192.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.