Dragon Roundel from a Ceremonial Garment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This piece is from a set of four roundels decorated the chest, back, and shoulders of a prince’s formal ceremonial garment. Each roundel bears a dragon-in-clouds pattern on a navy blue ground, and seven of the eight auspicious Buddhist symbols appear in the clouds around the edges—the canopy, endless knot, fish, lotus, umbrella, vase, and wheel. (Only the conch is missing.) The roundels for the chest and the back feature a frontal dragon (zheng long), while those for the shoulders show a dragon in motion (xing long) with its head in profile. The emperor’s formal ceremonial garment is decorated in the same way, except that all four dragons appear frontally.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art