Religious & Ritual Artifacts

Before the lamp is lit, there is the object. Religious and ritual artifacts come from India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Ethiopia, Russia, Mexico, Morocco and Central Africa, made for worship at home and in the temple. Narmada River lingams, sacred to Shiva, stand among Chinese bronze lu censers, foo lion incense burners and Tibetan burners in the form of Mahakala. Ethiopian Orthodox hand crosses, processional crosses and prayer scrolls in Ge’ez script, Russian icons and Mexican retablos on tin record Christian devotion in very different worlds. Moroccan Judaica, the silver amulets and Torah covers of the Maghreb’s Jewish communities, sits beside Berber hands of Fatima. Chinese opium pipes and the prestige pipes of the Bamileke and Bamun kings of Cameroon belong to ritual of another kind.

Patinated silver, smoke-blackened bronze, polished stone: all carry the marks of handling and prayer. Put a lingam in an entry hall and the room lowers its voice.