Tang burial wares - the sancai camel

Sancai earthenware camel found in Luoyang among the other figurines in a tomb which is said to belong to General Liu Tingxun of the Tang dynasty (618-907AD) following his death in 728AD.
Dimensions
Height: 33.75 inches
Registration number: 1936,1012.228

Description
Sancai ware, refers to the use of three contrasting colours on ceramics, was hugely popular during the Tang dynasty. Key features of the camel are highlighted by caramel brown and olive green against the white ceramic in a way that may suggest the liquid-based pigments were poured over and allowed to be flown freely over the body. This care-free style of colouring is common in most sancai ware which may reflect the opened attitude of the time towards western influences channelled through the Silk Road. The cultural and commercial exchange between India and the Middle East was at its peak during the Tang dynasty.

Sancai ware was made for burials. Burial ware existed back in the Shang dynasty (1500-1050BC) as it was believed that it would continue to serve the deceased in the netherwold as it had in life. While real sacrifices were used then, it was later replaced by a more economical concept whereby faithful depiction of objects would allow its essence to be transcended to the netherworld. Quite often burial ware includes functional items but it can also contain objects with symbolic meanings which were thought to be needed to protect and sustain the soul of the deceased.

The sancai camel has a tiger-liked demonic mask with a protruding tongue which resembles a tiger skin bag with double ropes running down the middle. Beside the mask are a slim skein coiled up in a double-figure-of eight fashion and a piece of fabric folded flat in blue. The coiled skein is thought to be silk as it resembles how silk are wounded up today since Han times. Attached to the packboards are a bird-liked ewer which resonates to the phoenix-head ewers made around that time and a piece of meat.

Camels are not indigenous to China and their existence closely connected to the Silk Road. The fact that the sancai camel was included as part of the burial collection may suggest the connection the deceased had had with the Silk Road trade. The camel is thought to be carrying offerings to feed the soul during its journey in the netherland. It is a widely known concept that the soul is in constant need of quenching its thirst so it is reasonable to deduce that the ewer on the load is for this particular purpose. It is also believed that the piece of meat attached could be the sacrifice for the ancestors while the silk may have its role in assisting the deceased to climb up to heaven. The demonic mask could be an apotropaic -protection iconography of the period and that having it on the camel’s back could help the deceased to fend off evil spirits.

Reference

British Museum website

The camel’s load in life and death – Elfriede Regina Knauer