Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Brick Depicting a West Asian Merchant Wearing a Kupeeyok Hat
Not on view
This building brick incised with a depiction of a foreign merchant of West Asian—perhaps Sogdian—origin was recovered during renovation work at Chedi Chula Pathon. International merchants in Southeast Asia frequented Dvaravati centers in central Thailand. Persians and other traders from the west, including India, participated in the long-distance trade that linked mainland Southeast Asia to the greater Indian Ocean world. Trade with the emerging port polities of mainland Southeast Asia was a profitable activity during the seasonal stopover in Southeast Asia, when exotic western goods could be exchanged for the forest wealth of the region.
cat. no. 11
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