A Sino-Tibetan concertina-folded book, printed in Beijing in 1410, containing Sanskrit dhāranīs and illustrations of protective mantra-diagrams and deities, woodblock-printed in bright red ink on heavy white paper.
Breathtakingly detailed printing, 40 years before Gutenberg.
Breathtakingly detailed printing, 40 years before Gutenberg.
The script is Ranjana/ Lantsha, an ornamental form of post-Gupta Brahmi. The text is printed twice, once on each side of the paper, so that the book may be read in the Indo-Tibetan manner by turning the pages from right to left or in Chinese style by turning from left to right.
Radio-carbon dating has established that the paper in this book was almost certainly produced between 1370 & 1450. Thus while the blocks of such books are sometimes used for centuries, this particular example likely belongs to the first edition produced with these blocks in 1410.
The text comprises a sequence of Tibetan Buddhist recitation texts, some including the kalpa. The book is printed without spaces between its constituent texts - fourteen in total have been identified - with no other visual indication of the boundaries between them.
This folding-book is protected at front and back by thicker board-like wrappers, with both the outside surface and the inside paste-down of each covered in fine pen-drawings in gold paint on black of 20 icons of the Tathāgatas, etc, arranged in 4 rows of 5 figures.
During the early Ming, close relations were established between Tibetan monks and the imperial court in Beijing. Although not directly part of the Buddhist canon, this work relates closely to the manner of woodblock carving employed for the production of the Sino-Tibetan Kangyur.
