Artwork Page for Palanquin Hook

Details / Information for Palanquin Hook

Palanquin Hook

1175–1230

Cambodia, probably Angkor

Medium
bronze
Measurements
Overall: 17.4 cm (6 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1982.12
Public Domain
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Location
244 Indian and Southeast Asian
Print
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Did You Know?

In the middle of the hook, a figure holding a sword in one hand and his extended leg in the other is in a dance pose expressing vigorous attack.

Description

When members of the royal family or priesthood traveled in a public festival procession or to a temple to make offerings 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 hook once supported a bronze ring from which hung a seat, like a hammock or swing. A wooden pole would have passed through the hollow socket at the top and was carried on the shoulders of bearers.

The hook segment ends in the face of a garuda, a man-eagle with a prominent beak, stylized wings, and feathers. Figures indicative of devotion and success, including pairs of elephants, crown the fitting.
Ornate green bronze hook ending in an eagle head and winding up with flanking feathers up to a middle figure with their left foot in left hand and a sword in the right. Above, a figure flanked by two elephants sits with palms pressed together in front, with a row of figures with their hands in the air at the top.

Palanquin Hook

1175–1230

Cambodia, probably Angkor

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