This is a gold reliquary in the form of a hemispherical, Buddhist commemorative monument called a stupa. The shape refers to the original funerary mounds which were built in India to house relics of the Buddha, dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, and to the Mon kingdom of Pegu (Now Burma/Myanmar). It was excavated from a stupa relic chamber at the base of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon in 1855. Embossed and chased with lion, floral and foliate motifs, it could have served either as a ritual object or as a container for the ashes of a highly respected monk. It was excavated by labourers when building barracks on the site of an old pagoda east of the Shwe Dagon, Rangoon in 1855 and now at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Dimensions - Height: 34.3 cm, Diameter: 30 cm maximum