Troupes of acrobats, dancers, jugglers, and musicians traveled the countryside at the time this object was made, entertaining wealthy rural estates. The energetic, young contortionists on this vessel seem frozen in action, like the best Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) clay mortuary figures. The girls, identifiable by their hairstyle, might represent immortals making merry at the court of the Daoist Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu). As a cult of immortality spread widely during the 2nd century, some tombs contained images of Daoist deities and inhabitants of the afterlife. The Queen Mother of the West and the immortals in her paradise often engaged in human activities and were popular figures in tomb decoration and furnishings of the period.