A Buddhist narrative scene from the Helsinki museum: a medieval belt mount (Minusinsk depression)

A bronze-gilt belt mount kept in the Finland's National Board of Antiquities (Helsinki) from I. P. Tovostin's collection of antiquities from the Minusinsk Depression is introduced into scientific discourse. It is a unique item because of its decoration featuring a narrative scene related to a Buddhist myth (Fig. 1). No analogies to this narrative scene are known. The paper examines analogies to the iconographic elements of the scene (Fig. 2; 3), and provides interpretation of the meaning of symbolic images. The narrative scene is benevolent in its character and initially might have had a more religious significance. Based on the distinctive features of the production technology, the item has been attributed to the artifacts of the Khitan circle (Liao Empire) and tentatively dated to the 10th - early 11th centuries.