Description (Labels & Markings)
The underside of the container is marked 'E.662' in black ink.
Event Date
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Description (Labels & Markings)
A typed label on the underside of the container reads '62'
Event Date
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Context (References)
Singer, Noel Francis. 2006. 'Occult Ephemera from Myanmar.' Arts of Asia. Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 139-150, July-August 2006, p.144. Figure 12.
Event Date 7/2006
Author: Mark Elliott

Context (Production / use)
"Medications were stored in say bu (receptacles) crafted out of nut shells, small sections of bamboo, or wood, gilded, painted with black thisi (resin from the lacquer tree Gluta usitata) or cinnabar. In China, the application of chu sha or dan (cinnabar) on containers was also prevalent among nan wu (sorcerers). Earthenware and glass were rarely used as most specialists were itinerant, and could not afford breakages. Vessels were sometimes professionally made with carvings of benign or demonic forms on the wooden stoppers, each figure indicating a particular use for the contents, a type of labelling.
"The fourth is a ceramic vessel of a demoness (yakshini) with a comb on her forehead acting as a stopper. In the Myanmar version of the Ramayana, this type of figure represents Surpanakha, sister of the yaksha king Ravana, and is known as Gambi yok (12). The potter has shown her as she transforms herself into a deer to lure Rama away from Sita – hence the antlers [according to the original Hindu account, it was the demon Maricha who changed himself into this animal]."
Noel F. Singer. 2006. 'Occult Ephemera from Myanmar.' Arts of Asia 36 (4) p.145.
Event Date 7/2006
Author: Mark Elliott

Description (Labels & Markings)
A typed label adhered to the lid reads '34'. [donor's list number 16 January 2017]
Event Date 16/1/2017
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Description (Physical description)
A small ceramic container (say bu) for shaman's medicines, in the form of a ceramic head of the demoness Gambi (Supanakha). The small lid is in the form of a comb and affixed with wire. One antler and one side of the collar have been broken and repaired however the date of this is unknown. Gambi, sister of the demon king Ravana from the Ramayana, is depicted the moment she transforms herself into a golden deer to lure Rama away from Sita; the antlers are small to appears as just emerging.
Event Date 13/11/2017
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson