Indian idols are of many forms, among the commoner varieties being those of Vishnu, Lakshmi the wife of Vishnu, and Siva. Many images of copper, afterwards gilt, come from Thibet and Nepal. The curiosities associated with the Lamaist worship have become familiar of late years. One of the representations of Amida, holding in her hand the teppattsu, is shown in Fig. 69. A "blue" Tara is illustrated in Fig. 70; Amitayus is shown in Fig. 71; and Fig. 72 represents Vajra Dharma holding the dorge. In Fig. 73 Amitayus is again shown holding the reliquary and wearing a jewelled collar. An interesting Lamaist altar ornament is a copper skull bowl, used as a receptacle for the sacred beer or wine of life. There are also Thibetian holy water jugs, beautifully inlaid with silver. In the Victoria and Albert Museum may be seen a colossal Buddha (Daibutsu) of sixteenth-century workmanship, which came from a Japanese temple. Appropriately placed close to it is a massive pair of lanterns of bronze, which were originally a gift to the temple of Miyoshino-tenjin by the feudal lord of the district. Most of these temple relics--idols and ornaments--were made of a special alloy known in Japan as _Kara kane_, which means Chinese metal, from which it may be inferred that this alloy was known and employed in China before it came into general use in Japan. Temple Vases and Ornaments. The mystical beliefs of China are chiefly Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, to which should be added ancestor worship, and in connection with all of them there are special objects of veneration, which we group together under the somewhat generic term of "temple relics." [Illustration: FIG. 75.--JAPANESE RITUAL VASE. FIG. 76.--SMALL TWO-HANDLED RITUAL VASE. FIG. 77.--CIRCULAR VASE ON STAND.]