Skull Cup

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This exquisitely modeled object, is a Skull-Cup, a tantric symbol and secret tantric offering object. The pentagonal base of the object is incised with flame like designs. There is a thin platform on it. On the platform, lies the container of the skull, made in the shape of three leaves. The exterior of these leaves are incised with the designs of flames. Three skulls have been attached with each of these leaves. The oval shaped skull-cup rests on these three leaves. The skull-cup has two parts: the lower one is plain and neatly polished, while the cover is incised with the design of brain including a cross-vajra (vishva-vajra) on the top; the center of which depicts a full-blown lotus.

The skull-cup is a tantric symbol carried by a number of Buddhist deities. It is represented filled with blood when in the hands of gods and in tantric rituals and ceremonies it is filled with wine to represent the blood, and then offered to the gods. The use of skulls in tantric Buddhist rituals is a symbolic reminder of the presence of death and the impermanence of all things, A Skull-Cup is called a yogi's begging bowl; drinking from a skull-cup shows the yogi's renunciation of the world and its conventions. The ritual in which skull-cup is used can be performed by any one who has acquired a certain stage of tantric knowledge (Anuttara yoga Tantra).

References:

R. AF. Thurman, Inside Tibetan Buddhism: Rituals and symbols Revealed, (ed.), by Barbara Roether, Collin, 1995.

R. C. Majumdar (Ed.), The Age of Imperial Kanauj, Bombay, 1955.

This description by Dr. Shailendra Kr. Verma.

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