Tibetan Gau boxes & Amulets

Ga’u or Gawu is a ritual item also known as amulet box. Gau are portable shrines generally made from hand hammered metals. The purpose and function of an amulet box is for general protection and protection when traveling. Amulet boxes are also commonly used to store all manner of sacred materials such as small texts, blessing cords, consecrated medicine, relics, and the like.

Types of Tibetan Gau Box

Tibetan Gau boxs can be categorized according to their size, shape. According to the shapes amulet boxes are found in shapes like shrine, square, round etc.

Usually there are 3 different sizes of the ghau which are small, medium and large. Each are used for different purpose depending on their size.

Amulet box comes is different size as small, medium, large. The small ones are usally worn around the neck containing precious and blessed objects.

A medium sized amulet box generally has three parts: the metal container of whatever shape, a cloth outer covering with a buttoned fold for opening, and finally the contents of the amulet box which can be an image made of metal, tsa-tsa, cloth, string, medicine, or anything that is deemed special or blessed.

They often, but not always, have a small window on the front with a religious image inside. Typically the front is very ornate and decorated with the Eight Auspicious Symbols and other motifs. Objects such as this were generally carried when traveling some distance away from home, such as on pilgrimage, or for extended business trips.

The largest of amulet boxes is typically in the shrine shape and follows the basic design of the medium sized box. They are normally too large to carry and remain on a shrine in a home or temple.

Tibetan Gau form Private Collection

Shakyamuni Buddha Amulet box

Shakyamuni Buddha Amulet box has stone setting finishing and it is from Private collection.

Origin	Tibet
Date Rangej	1500 – 1599
Lineage	Buddhist
Material	Metal, Mercuric Gild
Tibetan name	དབུས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བརྙན་གང་རུང་།
Chinese name	任何中心人物
Collection	Private
Finishing of Gau	Stone setting finishing

Vajrakila Amulet Box

Vajrakila Amulet box has stone setting finishing and it is from Private collection.

Origin	Tibet
Date Range	1500 – 1599
Lineage	Buddhist
Material	Metal, Mercuric Gild
Tibetan name	རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ།
Chinese name	金刚普巴（本尊）
Collection	Private
Finishing of Gau	Stone setting finishing

Mahakala Amulet Box

Mahakala Amulet box has stone setting finishing and it is from Private collection.

Lineage	Buddhist
Tibetan name	མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་ལ། ནག་པོ་ཆེན་པོ།
Chinese name	玛哈嘎拉
Collection	Private
Finishing of Gau	Stone setting finishing

Padmasambhava Gau Box

Padmasambhava Amulet box has Auspicious symbol carved o its outer surface and it is from Private collection.

Origin	Tibet
Lineage	Buddhist
Tibetan name	དབུས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བརྙན་གང་རུང་།
Chinese name	任何中心人物
Collection	Private
Finishing of Gau	Auspicious symbol carved

Tibetan Gau form collection of Royal Ontario Museum

Tibetan Gau with window

This Gau is a portable Tibetan Ritual item made with silver. It has carvings and small window on the front. It is 17.50 cm tall. This is from the collection of Royal Ontario Museum.

Origin	Tibet
Date Range	1900 – 1959
Lineages	Buddhist
Size	17.50 cm
Material	Silver
Collection	Royal Ontario Museum

Tibetan silver Gau

This Gau is a portable Tibetan Ritual item made with copper inlay and silver. It has carvings and small window on the front. It is 23 cm tall. This is from the collection of Royal Ontario Museum.

Origin Location	Tibet
Date Range	1800 – 1899
Lineages	Buddhist
Size	23 cm
Material	Silver, Copper Inlay
Collection	Royal Ontario Museum

Tibetan Carved Gau

This Gau is a portable Tibetan Ritual item made with copper inlay and silver. It has carvings and small window on the front. It is 9.50 cm tall. This is from the collection of Royal Ontario Museum.

Origin Location	Tibet
Date Range	1800 – 1899
Lineages	Buddhist
Size	9.50 cm
Material	Copper, Silver Inlay
Collection	Royal Ontario Museum

Silver Gau with 8 auspicious symbol

This Gau is a portable Tibetan Ritual item made with silver. It has carvings and small window on the front. It is 3.08 cm tall. This is from the collection of Royal Ontario Museum.

Origin Location	Tibet
Date Range	1800 – 1899
Lineages	Buddhist
Size	3.80 cm
Material	Silver
Collection	Royal Ontario Museum