A well-preserved & elaborately carved woodblock (85 x 380 mm.), with text & illustrations on both sides

Tibet: [late 19th-early 20th cent.].




Our woodblock was carved to print two leaves in pothi format, common for Tibetan books. It contains no Chinese sigla, which are sometimes seen in Tibetan books printed in China.


"The rise of printing in Tibet was an event of the utmost importance for Tibetan cultural and intellectual life. A major canonical collection is not known to have been printed until 1411, when that first Kangyur was printed with Ming imperial patronage. Yet printing had been used for Tibetan language publications centuries before. The earliest Tibetan language wood-block print currently known is a small prayer printed in Khara Khoto in 1153, and the earliest datable major Tibetan work currently known was printed in China under Mongol patronage no later than the 1270s." The links between Tibetan printing and that of neighboring states (Khara Khoto being the Tangut capital) are thus obvious. Meanwhile, "it was not until the beginning of the fifteenth century, in 1418, that block printing was carried out in central Tibet on a wide scale." By the mid-20th century, very substantial holdings of woodblocks were located in various monasteries and private firms in central Tibet (Kurtis R. Schaeffer, The Culture of the Book in Tibet [Columbia: 2009], pp. 9-11).


In the Qing period, printing in Tibetan continued to be carried out within China itself. Tibetan Buddhism was patronized by the Manchu rulers, and more importantly, it was the dominant religion among the Mongols under Manchu tutelage.


In fine condition.