History of Art and Furniture at Sange Monasteries*

The earliest furniture from Sange is marked primarily by solid one elemental colored backgrounds on the panels; either front panels of larger altars or side panels in the case of the smaller altars. Raised gesso, called Kyungbur in Tibetan, is used to outline designs, and then the designs are painted gold.  These early designs show influence from both Chinese silk brocade as shown above on the blue panels with the Taoist longevity symbol and from India in the cabinet side below with a variation of Vishnu’s chakra. The most common top border is the ‘T’ wave or rolling thunder design. The doors vary with Chakravartin’s Precious Elephant or Horse, narrative scenes such as the 4 compatible brothers or pastoral scenes with yaks, sheep or deer. The kyungbur on the extant pieces from this early period is very small in diameter, about the width of a sharp pencil. There is kyungbur on the frames with variations in the patterns used. The cabinet pictured above B007, has Dorjes and pearls on a flat surface. Other slightly later pieces displayed variations of a flattened ‘V’, some with border fluting and others with rounded shoulders. The painting is done on cloth that is glued to the doors or panels and then prepared in the same manner as tangkas, with the kaolin clay spread, dried and sanded smooth. This is probably the main reason that these paintings on furniture have lasted so long.  The all extant larger cabinets had a breakfront, the board that stretches underneath the frame from leg to leg until the 18th century. The smaller cabinets of this period with non moving panels under and sometimes over the doors were painted on the front doors, and two sides. There are also some smaller cabinets with out the front panels that are painted on all four sides. The accessibility to the interior items becomes difficult with the panels; the purpose of the panels was structural. The design of the door pulls and hinging makes use of the panels almost mandatory. These items were most exclusively used by the monasteries and in particular the Lamas and Geshes. When a Lama would die his possessions would be sold or some times handed down to a favored disciple. The rounded fronts on the smaller altar table frames lasted until the end of the 18th century when the ‘T’ wave and the zig-zag kyungbur started to dominate the designs. There is very little carving on the altars painted at Sange Monasteries. The Rolling thunder or ‘T’ wave was carved in until the middle of the 19th century, then was replaced by pre-cut ‘T’ waves. What little other carving was done was usually on the top of the frame just under the top’s overhang. One of the early 18th century small altar tables does have some carving other than the ‘T” wave, it appears to be the typical rendition of Kusha grass on a table that has the drawers over the doors and one of a kind drawer pulls. We were unable to find a cabinet maker in the valley, although we were informed that there is indeed a pair of brothers in the valley whose family has been making furniture for several generations. Detailed carvings seem to be used solely on headers for entrance doors and some of the interior in the temples. The main emphasis in the valley always has been painting with liberal use of the kyungbur, the raised gesso style of outlining. The early examples of the kyungbur are very fine lines and only to out line designs and not used for use with complex icons or scenes. There usually is a heavier lobe present when directions were changed. During the 19th and 20th centuries there is some evidence that the kyungbur thickness and direction  was variated and incorporated into the design elements, especially when drawing leaves