Treasures of the Tibet Series: Silver
Mid-late 15th century, in the collection of the Rubin Museum.
From the first half of the 20th century, in the collection of the Royal
Silver mantra prayer wheel with wooden handle
18th century, collection of Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
རྒྱ་དངུལ་སྐྱོན་མེད་འོ་མ་ཁ་དང་ནི།
ཧོར་དངུལ་ཤིང་ཁ་ཁམས་དངུལ་ཞོ་ཁ་མ།
རྒྱ་སེར་རྒྱ་གར་བལ་པོའི་སྐྱོན་ཅན་དང།
ར་དངུལ་ལུག་དངུལ་རྡོ་ཡི་ཁྱད་སོ་ཡིན།
ཡི་གེ་འབྲི་དང་དངུལ་སྤྱད་བཅོས་རྒྱུ་ནི།
སྣུམ་ཞག་ཕོག་ནས་ཁྲུས་ན་ཤིན་ཏུ་དཀར།
འོ་ཁ་ཞོ་ཁ་བཟང་ཞེས་མེས་པོའི་གཏམ།
Incomparable Han silver "Wo Ma Card",
Mongolian silver "Sin Card", Tibetan silver "Xue Ka Ma",
Differentiating between pure silver and mixed silver in jewelry and utensils
Pure silver is goat silver, mixed silver is sheep silver
Writing with silver water sets, remove oil stains for utmost whiteness
"Wo Ka" and "Xue Ka" are highly praised by predecessors
Selected from "Essence of the Method of Distinguishing Treasures"（རིན་པོ་ཆེ་བརྟག་ཐབས་མདོར་བསྡུས་གསལ་བ་）
by Longdopa Awang Losang, 1719-1794
The quality of silver can be determined by its layers of color
There is much exchange of gold and silver between the Ross region and Tibet.
Filmed by Rabden Lepcha between 1920 and 1921
Owned by the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
དངུལ་ཡང་ཁ་དོག་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ཟླ་དངུལ་ལེགས།
མཉེན་ཆ་རྒྱ་དངུལ་ཆེ།
རམ་ཁའི་རིགས་ངན་པས་སྤོངས།
Kang Qu's "moon silver" is the whitest
Han silver is generally the softest
Inferior silver "Rangka" can be discarded
Excerpt from "Detailed Explanation of Craftsman Skills"（རིགས་པ་བཟོ་ཡི་གནས་ཀྱི་ལས་ཚོགས་ཕྲན་ཚེགས།）
By the eminent monk Demagexi Danzeng Pengcuo（དེའུ་དམར་དགེ་བཤེས་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཕུན་ཚོགས་；1672-？） of Kang Qu
The term "moon silver" is derived from the color of moonlight
There is much debate over the term "Rangka"
Some call it mixed silver, others call it a color name
Silver, noble and ancient, nothing is more precious than this. It does not hold the title of "king of treasures" like gold, nor is it as difficult to obtain as coral and pearls. For centuries, silver has been regarded as a precious commodity closely related to daily life. In the revered land that values white and noble character, the craftsmanship of silver has been passed down through the ages, with the silver water containing the fading moments of history and memories. Since the Tubo period, the technology of making gold and silver utensils in Tibetan areas has been renowned throughout Eurasia (recorded by the histories of the Central Dynasty, the Eastern Roman Empire, and Arabia). Through the Tubo silverware handed down to this day, people can still clearly discern the cultural influences of different regions on Tibet (such as the Central Asian animal patterns and ancient Greek mythological figures on the silverware), and the silver rings, figurines, bowls, and bottles made by Tubo craftsmen once became the beloved possessions of royal families around the world.
Late 19th century, Rubin Museum collection
Tibetan silver-encrusted wooden bowls (དངུལ་ཤན་) can be roughly
wooden silver-encrusted rim bowls (དངུལ་ཁ་མ་)
and wooden silver-encrusted full bowls (དངུལ་ཤན་མ་)
"Silver Bowl with Lion Carvings from the Tubo Period"
Dating back to before the 7th century, this bowl stands at 8.5 centimeters tall.
Owned by Jeremy Pine and photographed by Mark French.
The animal carvings on the surface of the silver bowl have been identified by some as "wild boars."
7th century, stored in the Jokhang Temple
Classical scholars have written many descriptions of this wine bottle (resembling a royal item)
Its patterns and imagery are reminiscent of the "Sogdian style"
"The Prajnaparamita Sutra Manuscript with Illustrations"
Late 14th century, in the collection of the Rubin Museum
Silver ink used for copying the scripture, with gold ink highlighting key points
Illustration on the left depicts the Vajra-hand, illustration on the right depicts Manjushri riding a lion
Dating back to the late 17th century, measuring 12.7 cm in height,
In the first half of the 20th century, Lhasa Mingzhu Kang Tibetan Medical Institute
Ingredients: Mongolian Silver - Han Dynasty Silver Ingots
(Horseshoe-shaped and goat hoof-shaped) - Indian silver coins
"Silver bowls, silver water, silver coins; silverware falls into three categories."
While the wise in Kang region, like Demagexi, say,
"For commoners, silver bowls; for monks, silver water; for rulers, silver coins."
Different forms of silver bowls reflect the daily life order in Tibet,
Writing scriptures with silver water is a unique offering method to Tibet,
And the development history of silver coins vividly presents the economic
The Battle of Yarkand
"Blue Lapis Tibetan Medicine Thangka: Medicinal Properties and Functions of Various Medicines"
In the first half of the 20th century, Menzikang Tibetan Medical Institute in Lhasa
Local: Nepalese Silver Coin - Mengyu Silver Coin (generally refers to Bhutanese silver coin)
Mixed Silver Coin (Russian Silver Coin; རྒྱ་སེར་ཊམ་) - Kang Region Silver Coin
The true cause of the two Kolikata battles was the long-standing "silver coin dispute" between Tibet and Nepal. Pure silver coins were almost non-existent, which did not conform to market laws. The focus of the dispute between the two sides was the proportion of silver coins. Excellent quality Han Chinese silver ingots and silver from the Kang region flowed into Nepal, in exchange for Nepalese silver coins with cheap silver mixed in. It is important to note that because Tibet has strict ethical requirements for mining (related to Tibetan beliefs in mountains and treasures), in later years, Tibet's sources of silver mainly came from Han Chinese regions, northern Asia, and eastern Tibetan regions.
In the first half of the 20th century, the Zangkang Tibetan Medical Center in Lhasa
Composition: Containing iron-tin alloy silver, lead-containing silver and red
"Three Sets of Auspicious Animal Head Pendants with Symbols"
19th century, collection of the Songzan Museum
Detail: Qing Dynasty official holding a silver ingot and snow lion
(Symbolizing lasting wealth and strong relations with Tibet)
As the spiritual leader of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism,
in later years many Ganden Tripas were said to possess a silver stupa.
Biographical literature refers to it as the
"Silver Stupa of Wisdom" (ཤེས་རབ་དངུལ་གདུང་).
Silver is seen as a symbol of "wisdom and experience".
"Wooden Prayer Table with Silver Plated Auspicious Patterns"
Mid-18th century, Gelug school, Rubin Museum collection
The top layer of the offering table is engraved with the Seven Precious Emblems.
When the founder of the Sakya sect, Gongga Ningbo (1092-1158),
passed away, his students and family members made a life-size silver statue of him. "The hair on top was carefully carved from silver threads, shimmering like moonlight," showing the wisdom of the elderly sage. The noble character should be highlighted by silver, and the pure heart should be passed down to future generations like silver. In Tibetan culture, "sun and moon", "gold and silver",these are two equivalent concepts.Gold represents the father, silver represents the mother, and all precious treasures accompany them like offspring. There is a saying: "To be like silver, both inside and out are pure."
"Silver-Plated Eight Buddha Stupa: Vajrasattva Stupa"
Mid-19th century, in the collection of Zanabazar Fine Arts Museum
April 1921, photographed by Rabden Lepcha
Collection of Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
(Note the silver plate decoration behind the woman on the right)
Common Tibetan silver plate headgear and back ornament