Tang dynasty figure
- Gallery: Room 33
- Culture: Tang dynasty
- Date: 728 (Date recorded for the death of General Liu Tingxun 劉庭訓)
- Object type: figure
- Materials: earthenware
- Museum number: 1936,1012.228
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
This is a Tang dynasty figure of a Bactrian camel, covered in vibrant green, brown, and beige glaze. The camel is laden with goods—coiled silk, folded fabric, a saddlebag decorated with a monster mask, and attached items like a ewer, a flask, a piece of meat, and a bird. These objects reflect international trade during the Tang period, a time of great global exchange.
The camel’s cargo includes items shaped like those from Central or West Asia, showing how Silk Road routes connected distant worlds. These tomb figures were part of a funerary procession, signaling the status of the buried person—likely a high-ranking general who died in AD 728. The figures were part of a set found in Luoyang and made from glazed earthenware, a luxurious material reserved for the elite.
This piece, along with others, once belonged to General Liu Tingxun. Each detail from the ceramic glazes to the stylized cargo reveals a cosmopolitan era and the lasting legacy of Tang artistic achievements.
See it in person
Tang dynasty figure is on display in Room 33 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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