Who used these Antique Tibetan storage & offering cabinets?

Furniture in Tibet according to all historical accounts only existed in monasteries and lamaseries. The secular home, regardless of the financial assets or the religious following had no furniture per se. Tibetan furniture is then actually Tibetan Buddhist furniture. In my research I can find no records of furniture in Tibetan homes, quite the contrary, William Rockhill's accounts of his travels in Tibet in 1888 notes that there is a complete absense of furniture in even the most affluent homes. What we consider throw rugs or hall runners were the beds, chairs, and sofas of the Tibetan. Monks had some small altars or tables, the larger pieces were exclusively made for lama's and the best pieces were made for visiting high lama's residences. Monasteries typically have a residential compound reserved for a visiting high lama and/or many times one reserved for the Dalai Lama. Over the years these Lama's cabinets were passed down or sold to another lama or monk. It is the usual custom for the possessions of a monk or lama to be sold upon his death and the proceeds dispersed as directed by the deceased person prior to his death.