The animal shown standing foursquare with head thrown back in a bray, the twin humps standing proud of the oval saddle cloth, and flanking the large packs moulded with monster masks, skeins of silk and packboards, the body covered with a golden-brown glaze highlighted with splashes of green and cream.

The Bactrian camel was not indigenous to China, but was imported by the tens of thousands of camels from the states of the Tarim Basin , Eastern Turkestan and Mongolia. The Tang state created a special office supervise the imperial camel herds, which carried out various state assignments, including military courier service for the northern frontier. The camel was also used by the court and the merchants for local transportation and, of course, were the 'ships of the desert' linking China to the oasis cities of central Asia, Samarkand, Persia and Syria.