Tibetan Gao or Prayer Box

The silver is hammered into leaves and flowers, with a doorway of script at the center.

This gao or prayer box is from Tibet and dates to the 19th century. It is sterling silver. Gao are portable shrine boxes, generally worn or carried to hold small sacred images or texts, and they are often decorated with auspicious symbols. The front is a shaped arch, with a raised panel in the middle showing a stylized monogram in script beneath a crescent. Scrolling leaves and flowers curl across the surface, and a tooled background fills the gaps. A worn leather cord loops over the top. It is 4.75 inches wide, 2.25 deep and 4.75 high.

Hand-hammered and quietly devout.