Early Tang dynasty general

CHINESE GENERAL OF THE EARLY TANG DYNASTY (7th century), wearing an armour based on “lokapala” tomb guardian statuettes. These opulent armours would have been made of lacquered leather with colourful painted decoration, reinforced in some areas with iron lamellar and scale, which could have been lacquered too. These armours may have included silk decoration as well, and usually had faces of ferocious mythical beasts on their shoulders (usually a pair of Hindu-Buddhist makaras) and abdomen (usually a lion or tiger). According to written sources, it seems that battle masks were also used by some generals. The sword is based on a find from Shōsōin, Japan, which is a Tang Chinese import. Reconstruction made following the advice of my friend https://www.youtube.com/c/EquusBallo (he only has videos in Spanish for now).

The Tang dynasty ruled China from 618 to 907. During the first 43 years of the dynasty, they were contemporaries with the Sasanian Empire of Persia. When the Arabs of the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Persia, the last Sasanians fled in exile to the Tang court. The Tang were also contemporaries, and enemies, of the early Turkic (Göktürk) khanates. After the fall of the Sasanian Persian Empire, a succession of Islamic caliphates took its place: first the short-lived Rashidun, then the Umayyads of Damascus and finally the Abbasids of Baghdad. It was the later that in 751 defeated a Chinese army of the Tang Empire at the battle of Talas, in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, halting the westward expansion of the Tang.