The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 24, 2025

Muted green ring with a serpent with spines arcing over the top, a smooth arc at the bottom, and either side parallel clusters of figures with bird-human, monkey-human, and elephant forms. Wings and clothes are detailed with curving lines, cross-hatched lines, and dots, more serpent spines sticking out from the side.

Palanquin Ring

1100s–1200s

Cambodia, probably Angkor

bronze
Overall: 24.1 x 23 x 6.5 cm (9 1/2 x 9 1/16 x 2 9/16 in.)
Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski 2011.151
Location: 244 Indian and Southeast Asian

Description

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.
  • before late 1980s or early 1990s
    (Spink & Son, Ltd., London, England, sold to Dr. Norman Zaworski)
    late 1980s or early 1990s–2011
    Dr. Norman Zaworski [1920–2013], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2011–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Reinstallation of “Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan”. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 12, 2024-November 2, 2025).
    Beyond Angkor: Cambodian Sculpture from Banteay Chhmar. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 14, 2017-March 25, 2018).
  • {{cite web|title=Palanquin Ring|url=false|author=|year=1100s–1200s|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.151