Tricolor Pottery Figure of a West Asian Merchant Riding a Camel with a Monkey on His Back

With sunken eyes, a long nose and beard, the figure wears a scarf on his head. The open lapel jacket with narrow sleeves covers pants down to his kneels, garments in “barbarian style.” He rides on a Bactrian camel, both hands resting on the front hump; on his back is a monkey that raises its head and looks around. The camel raises his head as if neighing. The appearance and costume of the figure suggests that he was from the Kang Kingdom in the west of China. People of the Kang ethnic group excelled at business. Because of the prosperity of the Tang dynasty, its government established protectorates governing the west of China (today’s Xinjiang province), which reopened the Silk Road (previously established in the Han dynasty) from Chang’an, the capital of the Tang empire, to the east Mediterranean. The tricolor pottery sculpture depicts a merchant of the Kang ethnic group and shows his pleasure in riding a camel and playing with a monkey on the way to the Tang empire.
The figure and camel were primarily glazed light and dark brownish yellow. Light brown was used on the garment of the figure as well as the head, neck and four limbs of the camel. Both the humps and the cushion were painted with green, brown and yellow. The colors are splendid but not in sharp contrast. The pure and smooth glaze displays the sophisticated production of the tricolor pottery in the Tang dynasty. This tricolor pottery ware was unearthed in Luoyang, Henan province.