Glass was traded along the Silk Route from Persia, where glass production continued without interruption after the seventh century, from the Sasanian into the Islamic period. Glass vessels were associated with Buddhist practices, as indicated by their representation in several paintings from Dunhuang. The glass flask (cat. no. 57), for example, closely resembles the flask containing the drink of immortality held by Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in a banner painting (cat. no. 239), while the bowl filled with fruit held by the bodhisattva in this late ninth-century painting is similar to cat. no. 56.
Ink and pigments on silk
The British Museum,
1919,0101,0.120 (Ch.0025)