Tibetan Buddhist Silk Brocade Door Hanging With Kalachakra Monogram

Details

Description

On our trip to Nantucket in August we pulled a few amazing Asian Art pieces from an old Family house … Read more On our trip to Nantucket in August we pulled a few amazing Asian Art pieces from an old Family house sale of a diplomat and traveler who’s family was divesting themselves of the house and its contents…
We certainly lucked out and found a number of Buddha‘s bowls, porcelain silks, and a few carpets.
Red silk brocade shot through with gold scrollwork hangs a full 80 inches here, crowned by a pleated valance in saffron gold. At its heart is the Kalachakra monogram, known as the ten-fold powerful or Namchu Wangden, worked in dense satin-stitch silk thread in bright bands of red, yellow, white, green, blue, and black. It rises from a blue lotus base, is topped with a crescent and flame, and sits within an arch of orange fire. A line of Tibetan script in yellow thread runs across the field above it.

Made in China in the 1980s in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the banner is constructed in the manner of a temple door hanging, with two panels of cloud and floral brocade meeting at a seam down the center. A wide yellow brocade border frames the field, with red patches at the lower corners and scrolled blue appliqué in the upper and lower corners. Across the top are a navy and sea-green brocade header, a yellow band, and a red band beneath the valance, and red knotted ties at the head are made for hanging. The reverse is lined in plain red satin.

Hangings of this kind mark thresholds and serve as a focus for practice in temples, homes, and meditation rooms across the Himalayan regions. At nearly three feet wide, this one will command a doorway or stairwell, or it can be the single bold note on a quiet wall, where the red and gold carry the whole room.

It measures 34 inches wide and 80 inches high and is made of silk brocade with silk-thread embroidery and appliqué. It is lovingly used and in original, unaltered condition, with the gentle signs of age expected of a piece some four decades old, and the color remains vivid. See less