Vintage Burmese Thai Repousse Silver Monk Begging or Alms Bowl (Thabeik)

Description

Vintage Burmese Thai Repousse Silver Monk Begging or Alms Bowl
(Thabeik)
Chased and repousse design featuring five dancers in high relief.
The three-dimensional quality of the silverwork is outstanding, and is not quite captured in the photographs here.
Signed on bottom.  Slight tarnish spots on the inside of the pattern.
Not marked but tests at 90 percent silver.  (Has unidentified maker's and purity marks}
1900-1960's.
Good condition - no wear.
Measures 3 3/4 inches across at widest point and 1 7/8 inches high.
Base measures 2 1/2 inches across.
Weighs 69 grams.
Bowls such as these had no ceremonial or religious use; they are purely decorative.
Their shape is supposedly based on Burmese monks’ begging or alms bowls (one of the eight parikkharas or possessions allowed a monk).
In turn, such bowls are based on a bowl that the Buddha himself is said to have used.
But although the shape of such bowls is based on the monk’s begging bowl, ironically,
Burmese monks are prohibited from touching gold or silver.
Accordingly, Burmese silversmiths did not use their skills on religious objects unlike silversmiths in other Buddhist lands such as Tibet or Sri Lanka
#4685