Tripod Incense Burner

Contact with China during the Han dynasty (206 b.c.-220 a.d.) greatly influenced Vietnamese art and culture for centuries to come. As the Vietnamese adopted Confucianism and Chinese style ancestor worship, their ritual bronze tripods, vases, and even coins took on Chinese characteristics. While this rare fourteenth century Vietnamese tripod has a Chinese form, the small figural images attached to the rim are entirely a Vietnamese invention. The figures, clad in native dress, each carry an offering perhaps to an altar table where a censer such as this would have been used in ritual ceremonies.