Antique Chinese, Carved Jade inform of GHANTA Prayer Bell, Drilbu. showing beautiful translucent, smooth surfaces. Presented inside original Zitan case. Elaborately carved Zitan wood with iron-red inner cushion. Carved and marked four gilt script characters on handle, QianLong Reign Period.

Dimension (Case): 10" H x 5-1/4" Diam.

Dimension (Jade): 199.65mm H x 108.71mm Diam.
Weight: 639.20 grams
LOT NOTES:

The Prayer Bell, Ghanta (Drilbu), are one of the most frequently encountered objects on the Diamond Path (Vajrayana). It represents the most ordinary and the most complex symbol of Tibetan Buddhism. Whether present in solitary meditation or in the vast gatherings that mark monastic life, their role is essential; without them rites and ceremonies are hardly conceivable.
Unified, they form a symbol which is associated with the incorruptible purity of the diamond, with the truth that no force, no weapon can destroy. They represent the victory of knowledge over ignorance, the mastery of spirit over the “poisons” that tarnish existence.
The bell, ghanta or Drilbu, is at once the opposite and complement in this symbol of transcendental knowledge. Its handle may terminate in a stupa, a cintamani, or a single- or many-pointed Dorje. It represents not only sound, but also void and impermanence: its crystal tinkle dies no sooner than emitted, recalling that all is fleeting. It is thus the symbol of the immediate wisdom of intuition, which instantly grasps and understands the void without reflection or reasoning. Endowed with creative power by the attendant vibration of the mantra or dharani which it accompanies, the ritual bell also has the function of inspiring and activating the enlightenment of the heart.
In a world ruled by opposites, where there is no day without night, no nadir without zenith, no north without south, no sunrise without sunset, the symbolic pair Dorje and Drilbu minors the image of interdependent opposites, indissolubly united: it is the original essence of the Diamond Path, the seed of the double unity of contradictory appearances through which it is manifested. In this sense, the diamond scepter expresses the perfect clarity of the void, veiled by the endless diversity of its masks. For the needs of certain rituals, vajra and ghanta represent the two fundamental diagrams, virtually inseparable in the Buddhist universe, which are the stupa of Garbhadhatu and of Vajradhatu, or the world of appearances and the world of spiritual energies and forces. The combination of these two aspects is always indispensable for the attainment of Enlightenment.

Over all in EXCELLENT condition.

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