The variety of media to be discovered in our collection is as vast as Tibetan sculpture offers. There is pise (an endemic medium of compressed earth), clay, wood, stone, and a variety of metals such as brazz, bronze, and copper. Superimposed with traditional design, paint, gold gilding, and gems, these sculptures are one-of-a-kind and flawlessly finished. While endemic wood, as well as the skill required to carve it into the figures you see here, are expensive; stone is marginally employed in these artworks, mostly with the intention of having the sculpture in question consecrated. For centuries now, metal what local sculptors prefer. The larger ones have been done with repousse (strategic hammering and shaping), the smaller ones are examples of the relatively simpler lost-wax technique (molten metal replacing the wax pouring out of a vented clay cocoon). The Tibetan word 'li' denotes all sorts of metals and their alloys, of varying levels of refinement, and blended in non-uniform proportions. This leads to a wide variety of finishes of the same sculpture, which we suggest you zoom in on on the respective product pages.
Note the exquisite gilding on some of our select pieces - the tsang-ser method consists of gold mixed with resin or even honey to be painted on to the surface area with a well-worn brush. In case of paint, the coloured pigments employed are of high value, having been sourced and fashioned with hard work. In most sculptures, the countenance is highlighted, but there are a few in our collection that are completely coated with paint. Lacquered and gilded aside, some Tibetan Buddhist sculptures are inlaid with semiprecious stones, which is an influence of the Nepalese tradition. The soul of a Buddhist sculptures lies in the consecrational deposits placed within the figure.
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