Fig 2
The first artifact that I discuss here is a bronze ritual dagger known as a “ge” (fig 2) from the Ba Shu people in Sichuan Province and dates from about 400BC. On both sides of the hilt is depicted a simple impression of a man, with arms raised, almost certainly a shaman, officiating at some form of ritual. On the blade is depicted an ox probably representing the shaman’s animal helper to aid the shaman on the journey to the ancestors, and maybe also an animal to be sacrificed. Perhaps then the shaman can accompany the animal to the world of the dead as he seeks to make contact with the ancestors. Because the shoulder blade of the ox was used for divination purposes it may be of particular significance that the ox is depicted here. The piece is reputed to have been found, together with a number of similar objects, in a dried out river bed. This most probably was a sacred site, auspicious for making contact with the ancestors. All the other bronze ge found there, were broken in two, and obviously the breaking was part of the ritual. It is interesting both why my piece survived intact, and also the significance of the breaking, of what were obviously precious objects. It even looks as if originally a precious stone was set into the ox’s face but has since been lost. Maybe this was to revere the animal that was so important to these people in the shamanic ritual. We can only conjecture as to why the pieces were broken, and the only thought that occurs to me is that breaking the object is a mark of the people’s commitment to the shamanic journey. There is no going back. They were prepared to sacrifice a precious object irrevocably to show thw vital importance of auspicious contact with the ancestors. This piece was found in the same general region as the extraordinary finds at Sanxingdui, but would be dated at a slightly later period. Interestingly many of the objects at Sanxingdui were also ritually broken.
Now on a small number of bronzes in the late second millennium BC and early first millennium BC both human and animal figures occur together, and when this happens the animal always seems to be a tiger as in Figs 1 and 3. Another striking characteristic he notes is that the tiger and the man are always depicted as if in harmony. In some pieces the tiger’s mouth is actually open and the human head is close to it, but never in an aggressive way. Sometimes tigers are dancing round a man as if in an ecstatic state, and in one piece I have brought along, the images of the tiger and the man are fused together. Nelson Wu shows “the man at the gaping mouth of the beast” occurs in art and literature throughout the world often depicting a tiger or a snake with open mouth. He views the gaping mouth of the beast as an archetypal symbol separating one world (the world of the dead) from another world (the world of the living). Seen in this light the human depicted could be none other than the shaman, shown as he is being aided on his journey to another world. The combination of the shamanistic image, his animal assistants and the gaping mouth depicts this communication – and the representation may even have been thought to have brought about a successful meeting. Anyway the placing of the human head inside the tiger’s mouth clearly expresses their closeness. Wu points out that in many ancient cultures the man-beast motif occurs regularly. Among the Aztecs, for instance, every newborn child was assigned an animal serving as protector, helper, companion and alter ego, and in this and other South American cultures the jaguar was the alter ego for the highest classes. This way of thinking seems far wider, however than the Aztecs and the Chinese.
The first artifact that I discuss here is a bronze ritual dagger known as a “ge” (fig 2) from the Ba Shu people in Sichuan Province and dates from about 400BC. On both sides of the hilt is depicted a simple impression of a man, with arms raised, almost certainly a shaman, officiating at some form of ritual. On the blade is depicted an ox probably representing the shaman’s animal helper to aid the shaman on the journey to the ancestors, and maybe also an animal to be sacrificed. Perhaps then the shaman can accompany the animal to the world of the dead as he seeks to make contact with the ancestors. Because the shoulder blade of the ox was used for divination purposes it may be of particular significance that the ox is depicted here. The piece is reputed to have been found, together with a number of similar objects, in a dried out river bed. This most probably was a sacred site, auspicious for making contact with the ancestors. All the other bronze ge found there, were broken in two, and obviously the breaking was part of the ritual. It is interesting both why my piece survived intact, and also the significance of the breaking, of what were obviously precious objects. It even looks as if originally a precious stone was set into the ox’s face but has since been lost. Maybe this was to revere the animal that was so important to these people in the shamanic ritual. We can only conjecture as to why the pieces were broken, and the only thought that occurs to me is that breaking the object is a mark of the people’s commitment to the shamanic journey. There is no going back. They were prepared to sacrifice a precious object irrevocably to show thw vital importance of auspicious contact with the ancestors. This piece was found in the same general region as the extraordinary finds at Sanxingdui, but would be dated at a slightly later period. Interestingly many of the objects at Sanxingdui were also ritually broken.
Now on a small number of bronzes in the late second millennium BC and early first millennium BC both human and animal figures occur together, and when this happens the animal always seems to be a tiger as in Figs 1 and 3. Another striking characteristic he notes is that the tiger and the man are always depicted as if in harmony. In some pieces the tiger’s mouth is actually open and the human head is close to it, but never in an aggressive way. Sometimes tigers are dancing round a man as if in an ecstatic state, and in one piece I have brought along, the images of the tiger and the man are fused together. Nelson Wu shows “the man at the gaping mouth of the beast” occurs in art and literature throughout the world often depicting a tiger or a snake with open mouth. He views the gaping mouth of the beast as an archetypal symbol separating one world (the world of the dead) from another world (the world of the living). Seen in this light the human depicted could be none other than the shaman, shown as he is being aided on his journey to another world. The combination of the shamanistic image, his animal assistants and the gaping mouth depicts this communication – and the representation may even have been thought to have brought about a successful meeting. Anyway the placing of the human head inside the tiger’s mouth clearly expresses their closeness. Wu points out that in many ancient cultures the man-beast motif occurs regularly. Among the Aztecs, for instance, every newborn child was assigned an animal serving as protector, helper, companion and alter ego, and in this and other South American cultures the jaguar was the alter ego for the highest classes. This way of thinking seems far wider, however than the Aztecs and the Chinese.
Below is another piece from my collection, a spondylus shell from pre-Columbian Moche culture of northern Peru Circa 200 to 400 AD. This piece shows a human face depicting the Ai-Apaec style mouth with inlaid large eyes and ear spools. The mouth, with its fangs, is a depiction of a jaguar's mouth, the forehead and eyes a depiction of a jaguar's features, and is part of the transformation of the shaman into an animal, as he identifies with the jaguar's spirit, to harness the power that the jaguar was seen to hold, as the most powerful animal around.
Fig 3 (3.2 in x 3,2 in)Yet another piece from my collection, made by the Tairona tribe in a material called tumbaga. Tumbaga is an alloy of copper,gold and silver. The object was found in a place called "El Dragon" (The Dragon) 10 km. from the Sierra Nevada de Sta. Marta in the Magdalena Valley region of Northern Columbia and dates to approximately 1000AD. The object was found by Mr. Julio Sanchez in circa 1802. Object was later acquired by collector Mr. Pedro Dominguez on April 1894. Mr Dominguez was a well known and reputable historian and politician in Columbia. It is again a representation of a shaman transforming into a jaguar. The figure is in a slightly stooped posture, moving towards being an animal on all fours. It has a human body, and a shaman's ceremonial regalia, but its head has become that of a jaguar, with claws for hands, and the beginnings of a cat's rear paws.
Fig 4 (7.3cm by 4.0cm)
In fig 5 we can see a male figure with two faces, each face confronting a ferocious large wild cat, seemingly gaining mastery over it, facing it down.
Fig 5
In Fig 6 we can see how the man's body fuses with the body of the animal, and this again may have shamanic implications, with a belief in magically gaining control over nature.
Fig 6
Now, returning to ancient China, the king was the head shaman This dual image of man and tiger is widely regarded as the head shaman, and very possibly the man depicted with the tiger is a representation of the king or one of his close kinsmen, the tiger being the Chinese equivalent of the jaguar. So maybe the helping animal that accompanied the king on his soul journey was the most regal of animals, the tiger.
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