Buddhist Water Sprinkler (Kundika)

This type of vase with pouring spout and tubelike mouth at the shoulder has served several roles in Buddhist ritual: to purify a sacred space, to invoke a deity, or to anoint a worshipper. Created in bronze as well as several types of stoneware, these vessels originated in India and spread throughout East and Southeast Asia. In Chinese Buddhist art, the kundika appears primarily as an attribute of the bodhisattva Guanyin (Sanskrit: Avalokitesvara). This ceramic example may have been made primarily for burial.