Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "153607",
    "label": "Pair of naga finials",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "153607",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Pair of naga finials",
    "description": "When members of the royal family or priesthood traveled in a public festival procession or to a temple to make offerings or participate in a ceremony, they would be carried in a palanquin, or a covered litter. Portable objects of veneration, such as bronze images or a sacred fire, were also carried on palanquins. The palanquins had wooden poles, hanging seats or raised platforms, and bronze fittings cast in intricate forms and gilt, lending the palanquins a sumptuous quality.<br><br>The royal palanquins were typically fitted with multiheaded, serpent-shaped finials at the ends of the poles and corners of the elevated platforms. <br><br><em>Naga</em> means serpent in Sanskrit, a language from India selectively appropriated by the Khmer in Cambodia. In their own indigenous mythology, the Khmer people trace their descent from a naga princess and a prince from the island of Java who journeyed to Cambodia. The naga remains a potent emblem for the Khmer nation to this day; it is ubiquitous on Cambodian monuments.",
    "date": "1100s",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.14",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q79939550"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Metalwork"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.14/1987.14_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.14/1987.14_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.14/1987.14_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 29.2 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm (11 1/2 x 6 x 6 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Cambodia, probably Angkor"
    ],
    "accession": "1987.14"
}

{
    "tec": "bronze",
    "tombstone": "Pair of naga finials, 1100s. Cambodia, probably Angkor. Bronze; overall: 29.2 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm (11 1/2 x 6 x 6 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1987.14",
    "collection": "Cambodian Art",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 70-71, no. 211",
            "url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25160017"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.14",
    "creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
    "sketchfabId": "05a8ca5e91bd468eb07726086627b906",
    "sketchfabUrl": "https://sketchfab.com/models/05a8ca5e91bd468eb07726086627b906",
    "galleryDonorText": "Nancy F. & Joseph P. Keithley Gallery",
    "updatedAt": "2026-06-18 21:16:32.264000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.14/1987.14_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 153607,
    "dept": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
    "coll": "Cambodian Art",
    "med": "bronze",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.14/1987.14_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "5093d3294f9b5cc0"
}