Tibetan Eating Bowl

Silver & Burlwood Eating Bowl

This fine Tibetan eating bowl comprises a single, turned piece of burlwood – possibly rhododendron rootwood – and a foot and an interior lined with silver.

The bowl is well used and has a wonderful patina as a result – the wood has much ‘depth’ and the flecks of the grain have a glowing quality.

The silver around the low, flat foot has been chased with a repeated Buddhistic curl motif and has been pinned to the wood by means of silver pins.

Silver was the preferred material from which utensils were fashioned by the Tibetan nobility as silver was felt to have a purifying effect on food.

The bowl is in fine condition. The burlwood has a slight unevenness on account of its rootwood nature. The interior shows plenty of signs of use, with evidence of having been scraped and jabbed with chopsticks.