Incense burner with cover in the shape of a mountain, Han dynasty, 206 BC-220 CE, d. 19,2 cm, earthenware with lead glaze, © Rijksmuseum, AK-NM-12311

This incense burner represents a mythical mountain where immortals roam. Such objects in the form of a mountain may have symbolized the entrance to the supernatural world, which the Han Chinese believed could be accessed from the highest mountain tops. A second possibility is that this is Mount Penglai, the mystical island of paradise in the Eastern Sea.