{
"data": {
"id": 154786,
"accession_number": "1989.362",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Phurbu, 1403\u201324. Sino-Tibetan, Yongle period (1403\u20131424). Metal alloys with gold and silver; overall: 27 x 6 cm (10 5/8 x 2 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin, 1989.362",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Phurbu",
"creation_date": "1403\u201324",
"creation_date_earliest": 1403,
"creation_date_latest": 1424,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Sino-Tibetan, Yongle period (1403\u20131424)"
],
"technique": "metal alloys with gold and silver",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Tibetan Art",
"type": "Metalwork",
"measurements": "Overall: 27 x 6 cm (10 5/8 x 2 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.27,
"width": 0.06
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 310300,
"title": "The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection",
"description": "The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-September 2, 1990).",
"opening_date": "1990-07-05T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 216467,
"title": "The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art",
"description": "The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (October 5, 2003-January 11, 2004); Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (February 8-May 9, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2003-10-05T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 206243,
"title": "Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China",
"description": "Defining Yongle: Imperial Art in Early Fifteenth-Century China. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (April 1-July 10, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2005-04-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 202079,
"title": "Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art",
"description": "Focus: Tantra in Buddhist Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 5-September 15, 2013).",
"opening_date": "2013-05-05T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(William H. Wolff, Inc., New York, NY, sold to Severance and Greta Millikin)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131970",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Severance A. [1895\u20131985] and Greta [Marguerite Steckerl] Millikin [1903\u20131989], Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1970\u20131985",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Greta [Marguerite Steckerl] Millikin [1903\u20131989], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1985\u20131989",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1989\u2013",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"description": "A purba is a dagger-like stake with three blades that helps tantric practitioners overcome their aversions to substances that are typically considered abhorrent, like pus and blood. Pierced with the purba, the unsavory substances are ritually transformed into wondrous substances, such as nectar.
Crowning this purba are a half-vajra and three heads of the tantric enlightened being named Vajrakila, who presides over powers of transformation from wickedness to compassion. Each of his faces has been wrought of a different metal alloy in the imperial workshop of the Chinese emperor of the Ming dynasty. The luxurious quality of the endless knot motifs, the crocodile heads, and the snakes twisting down the center of each blade indicate Chinese imperial workmanship.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79942339"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1989.362-purba"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Huntington, John C., Dina Bangdel, and Robert A. F. Thurman. The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art. Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2003.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 506\u2013507, cat. no. 156",
"url": null
}
],
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"creditline": "Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 154786,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1989-12-04T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1403,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1403\u201324",
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"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Ritual Dagger (Phur-pa)",
"Purba"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:04:22.231000"
}
}