The Gilded Mystery of Liao Dynasty Funerary Masks

The Funerary Masks of the Liao Dynasty

Among the Khitan people of the Liao dynasty, the dead could be prepared for burial with extraordinary care. In some elite tombs, elaborate clothing, metal-wire coverings and masks of bronze, silver, gilt bronze or gold enclosed the body.

Two masks in the Bai Win Collection survive from this tradition. H-8997 is gilt bronze; H-8996 is bronze. Both have closed eyes and composed expressions, but they are not identical. Their proportions, features and surfaces differ, suggesting objects individually fashioned within a broader funerary convention.

Exactly what these masks meant remains uncertain. Archaeology reveals how the Khitan treated their dead more readily than it reveals what they believed those treatments accomplished.

Map of the Liao Empire
Map of the Liao Empire. Tōjichi / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Khitan and their Dead

The Liao dynasty (907–1125) was established by the Khitan, whose empire extended across much of northern and northeastern China and Mongolia. Khitan rulers governed large settled Chinese populations while maintaining traditions rooted in the pastoral cultures of northeastern Asia.  That combination is particularly visible in burial practices.

Liao Funerary Mask attire 1
Liao dynasty funerary attire, 10th–12th century. Musée Guimet, Paris. Photograph: PHGCOM / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Excavated tombs show that metal masks could form part of a much larger funerary ensemble incorporating headdresses, collars, elaborate clothing and metal-wire coverings. The mask was therefore not necessarily an isolated object. It belonged to the preparation and transformation of the body for burial.

Surviving examples range from bronze and copper alloy to silver and gold. Material clearly mattered. Precious metal reflected wealth and rank, particularly in elite Khitan burials.

Whether it carried meanings beyond status is more difficult to establish.

Metal, Identity and Death

The mask may have helped preserve or protect the deceased, but its placement over the face suggests another dimension. The face is one of the principal ways human beings recognize identity, and covering it with a carefully fashioned metal image was a deliberate act.

Similar practices appeared in cultures far removed from the Khitan world. Their meanings were not necessarily the same, but the comparison demonstrates how repeatedly societies used funerary masks to address questions of identity, status and death.

The similarities are striking, but they should not obscure profound differences between these societies. There is no reason to assume that an Egyptian, Mycenaean and Khitan funerary mask expressed the same beliefs.

Scroll closeup image
Egypt — Mask of Hatnefer Dynasty 18, ca. 1492–1473 BCE. Gilded cartonnage. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.
Mycenae — “Mask of Agamemnon” 16th century BCE.
Mycenae — “Mask of Agamemnon” 16th century BCE. Gold sheet worked in repoussé and placed over an elite male burial. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Liao Dynasty Mask Image from Musee ernuschi
Gilt-bronze funerary mask and headdress, Liao dynasty (907–1125). Musée Cernuschi, Paris. Image: Paris Musées / Musée Cernuschi. CC0.
Gilt funerary mask of the Princess of Chen
Gilt funerary mask of the Princess of Chen State, Liao dynasty, c. 1018. Photograph: Gary Todd / Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0.

Gold and the Liao Elite

One of the most important Liao discoveries provides a remarkable comparison. The Princess of Chen, granddaughter of Emperor Jingzong, died in 1018 at the age of eighteen. Her intact tomb in Inner Mongolia contained exceptionally rich precious-metal funerary equipment, including a gold mask.

The burial demonstrates the importance that metal masks could assume at the highest levels of Khitan society. Rank, material and funerary display were closely connected.

Against this archaeological background, the surviving gilding of H-8997 becomes particularly significant.

H-8996 bronze death mask from the Liao Dynasty
H-8997 bronze death mask from the Liao Dynasty

The Bai Win Collection Objects

H-8996 — Bronze Funerary Mask
Attributed to the Liao dynasty (907–1125)
Bronze
China
24H × 23W × 2D cm

The Bai Win Collection Objects

H-8997 — Gilt-Bronze Funerary Mask
Attributed to the Liao dynasty (907–1125)
Gilt bronze
China
19H × 18W × 4D cm

Two Liao Masks

H-8997 today presents a complex surface of surviving gold alongside green copper corrosion. The corrosion records centuries underground; originally, however, the mask would have appeared predominantly golden.

Beside it, H-8996 offers a markedly different presence in bronze. Differences in proportion and modeling may reflect status, date, workshop, convention or characteristics of the individuals for whom they were made. Without archaeological context, certainty is impossible.

What survives is nevertheless substantial: two examples of one of the most distinctive funerary traditions of the Liao world, fashioned in different materials and preserved for nearly a thousand years.

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