Tsha tshas are small objects made of raw or baked clay, produced between India and Mongolia since the second half of the first millennium. Made during Buddhist rituals generally aimed at the accumulation of merit, tsha tshas (Tibetan term) can also be made in a funerary context. In the latter case, fragments of crushed bones, ashes from a pyre or nails can be incorporated into the clay during its preparation. Easily transportable because of their small size, tsha tshas are nomadic objects that can be found in the collections of many Western museums. However, the precise origin of these objects is largely unknown. Furthermore, certain objects’ notices indicate that the latter are made of clay and human bone powder. It is therefore interesting to question whether archaeometric analyses, combined with an ethno-archaeological approach, can provide new information on the contexts of manufacture. Are these objects ‘merely’ votive objects or are they also funerary, and thus contain human remains? Is it possible to learn more about the contexts of deposit of tsha tshas and, by extension, the contexts of collect? These interrogations are intrinsically tied to the concepts of ritual and materiality. In order to address them the presentation will presenting the preliminary results of non-invasive analyses made on tsha tshas from the collections of the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris. These analyses include radiology (tomodensitometry), 3D microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray fluorescence. The results will then be contextualized with ethno-archaeological work carried in Nepal since 2015.