Monks Brass Copper Ritual Water Flask (Chab Bum), Tibet, Mongolia

Mendicant Monk’s Brass & Copper Ritual Water Flask (Chab Bum)

This interesting little flask with a flattened, spherical body of beaten copper and a brass neck and stopper was used by Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist mendicant monks to hold small quantities of water. Such small flasks were kept in the folds of a monk’s robes. It has loops which were used to attach the flask to a small cloth pouch that was included with the monk’s robes.

Mendicant monks (

geylong) followed the practice of Indian mendicants who carried water flasks. Traditionally such monks were supposed to carry a small flask of water to rinse his mouth. Most monks in Tibet belong to the mendicant order so most were required to keep a small bottle of water with them.

Tibetan monks tended to drink hot butter tea throughout the day and rarely drank or even used cold water. So such vessels were worn more as ornaments as an insignia of their

geylong status.

Related examples are illustrated in Lipton & Ragnubs (1996, p. 243), Hirmer (2011, p. 726) and Thurman & Weldon (1999, p. 80).

This example has ample wear from use; its contours have been rounded and softened from use of handling and ritual use. Its significant age is very clear.

Lipton, B., & N.D. Ragnubs, Treasures of Tibetan Art: Collections of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Meinert, C. (ed.),

Buddha in the Yurt: Buddhist Art from Mongolia, Vols 1& 2, Hirmer, 2011.

Thurman, R., & D. Weldon,

Sacred Symbols: The Ritual Art of Tibet, Sotheby’s/Rossi & Rossi, 1999.

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