The Dali Kingdom ruled present-day Yunnan from 937 until 1253. It was a geographic center, bordering today’s Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Tibet, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi. A Buddhist Kingdom, Dali art focuses on Buddhist icons and decoration, and is particularly known for its elegant and elongated figures and faces.
This thin-walled stoneware jar has two rows of applied, impressed decorations. On the top are Dali Buddhas, below is a ring of twelve Chinese zodiac animals. Jars of this style and period are typically decorated (incised and applied) with lotus decorations, some with Sanskrit Buddhist verse, others with Chinese translations of sutras, most have minimal incised leaf patterns. This jar is unique with the zodiac animals, as they’re more from traditional, folk religion that was more closely tied to Taoism than Buddhism.