Terms and conditions of use
Votive food container
(Hsun-ok)
(early 20th century)
- Medium
- lacquer, wood, bamboo
- Measurements
- (a-b) 74.2 × 37.5 cm diameter (overall)
- Place/s of Execution
- Burma
- Accession Number
- 2012.67.a-b
- Department
- Asian Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of John McCarthy in memory of Edwin and Margot McCarthy through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2012
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Gordon Darling Foundation - Gallery location
- Level 1, NGV International
- About this work
-
Known as hsun-ok, lacquer vessels of this type are used in Burma for carrying offerings to monasteries, where they are presented to monks, thus earning spiritual merit for the donor. The trays inside hold a variety of food and donations, including rice, fruit, eggs, curry, condiments and quids, chewable portions of leaves from the betel plant. Most Burmese households would have owned at least one hsun-ok. Burmese lacquer wares are made of woven bamboo and/or wood coated with many layers of lacquer from the Melanorrhoea usitata tree, and decorated in a variety of techniques, including incised patterns, relief moulding and sculpting.
- Physical description
- Lacquered votive food container (hsun-ok), with mould decoration (thayo) and turned wood finial and foot. Red and black lacquer.