ritual dagger

Bronze Vajrayana Buddhist ritual thunderbolt dagger, phurpa. Three-sided blade topped by head of makara, sea monster, out of whose mouth emerge two intertwined snakes crawling down each side of blade, carved in relief. Hilt begins and ends with a geometrically carved knot flanked by decorative vegetation. In the middle of hilt, two lotuses meet. Hilt topped with three heads surrounding surface, expressions wrathful, with bulging eyes, fangs, thick eyebrows, moustaches and beards, with third eyes on foreheads. Headdress in relief with three skulls, narrows towards top in three steps, carved lotuses in the middle. Pinnacle at centre is five-pronged vajra.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
nn4384
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
265w x 45dia
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
LOCATION
In storage
SHAREABLE LINK

Continue exploring anthropology

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk