A Tibetan engraved skull or Kapala are embellished with silver and semi-precious stones and is commonly used as a ritual bowl to drink blood out of; performed at ancient human sacrifice rituals.
The Kapala's are commonly made in Ttibet, Nepal and India which tie into the Hindu and Buddhist doctrine. There have been occasions where the Kapala's have been used to carry bread and wine, which is a far cry from the sacrificial traditions that it is symbolically linked to. Other Tibetan monks state that the carvings are done to take a curse off a family or to guide the soul of a mislead human on the right path to enlightenment. In Buddhisms death is seen as a normal part of life and bones are just seen as bones where as in western countries a human skull means much more below the surface.
