[HIMALAYAN BUDDHIST WOODBLOCK]

Printing Block for a Devotional Print or Prayer Flag

[Bhutan: circa 19th or early 20th century]. Carved wood printing block, with upper handle pierced; Printing face carved in reverse with a large central panel of approximately 45 lines of Tibetan script, incorporating a central Buddhist figure within the text field and surrounded by a broad ornamental border of Buddhist symbols, vegetal decoration, and animal motifs. Reverse not carved. Darkened with oil and pigment. Printing surface: 24 x 14 inches. Overall size: including handle 28 x 16 1/8 inches.

A large Bhutanese Buddhist woodblock, carved with a dense field of Tibetan script, central devotional imagery, and a richly ornamented border for the printing of a religious text or image-bearing devotional impression.

This woodblock was made for printing a combined text and image composition onto paper or cloth. The central field is densely carved with mirror-reversed Tibetan script, arranged around a seated Buddhist figure. The surrounding border gives the block an elaborate pictorial character, incorporating auspicious and devotional motifs that would have framed the printed impression. The printing block belongs to the tradition of larger image-bearing devotional blocks, including those used for prayer flags, protective prints, mandalas, and related Buddhist impressions. In Bhutan, woodblock carving is known as par-zo, a traditional art whose origins are traced to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its primary purpose was the printing and dissemination of religious texts in large quantities. Hardwoods such as la-tag (birch), tsen-den (cypress), and ta-go (walnut) were used for engraving, with la-tag generally preferred for its availability and its suitability for fine carving. Once the engraving was complete, the blocks were soaked in very hot mustard oil, a traditional method of treating the wood to harden and preserve it, protect it from pests and decay, and make it more resistant to moisture. In a Buddhist context, engraved woodblocks were revered not simply as printing tools, but as objects associated with the sacred transmission of Buddhist teaching. Scriptures printed from them were regarded as blessed and authoritative, embodying the speech of the Buddha and other enlightened beings. Such texts were read, recited, and sometimes carried in procession through villages to ward off harmful influences and to invoke rain, good harvests, peace, and tranquillity. Both the carving process and the objects produced by it remain integral to Bhutan's cultural heritage.

Item #19214

Price: $9,500.00