Silver in the Tibet Series: Treasures of the Precious Metals
The Royal Ontario Museum’s collection includes the "Silver Zodiac Eight Treasures Decorated Box," dating to the first half of the 20th century. Also, the "Silver-plated gemstone mounted copper base Green Tara statue," from the mid-late 15th century, is held at the Rubin Museum.
From Longdopa Awang Losang’s “Essence of the Method of Distinguishing Treasures” (རིན་པོ་ཆེ་བརྟག་ཐབས་མདོར་བསྡུས་གསལ་བ་), 1719–1794, comes this passage: 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། That is, incomparable Han silver “Wo Ma Card,” Mongolian silver “Sin Card,” and Tibetan silver “Xue Ka Ma.” To differentiate pure silver from mixed silver in jewelry and utensils: pure silver is goat silver, mixed silver is sheep silver. For writing with silver water sets, clean off oil stains for the whitest result. “Wo Ka” and “Xue Ka” are highly praised by predecessors. Meanwhile, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art owns an 18th-century silver mantra prayer wheel fitted with a wooden handle. Silver quality can be assessed by its color layers, and there is much exchange of gold and silver between the Ross region and Tibet.
The term "moon silver" comes from the color of moonlight. According to the "Detailed Explanation of Craftsman Skills" (རིགས་པ་བཟོ་ཡི་གནས་ཀྱི་ལས་ཚོགས་ཕྲན་ཚེགས།) written by the eminent monk Demagexi Danzeng Pengcuo (དེའུ་དམར་དགེ་བཤེས་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཕུན་ཚོགས་；1672-？) of Kang Qu, "moon silver" from Kang Qu is the whitest, Han silver is generally the softest, and inferior "Rangka" silver can be discarded. There is considerable disagreement over the term "Rangka": some regard it as mixed silver, while others treat it as a color name. Nothing is nobler or more ancient than silver. A film titled "The Lhasa Silversmith at Work with His Two Children," shot by Rabden Lepcha between 1920 and 1921 and held by the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, captures this craft in practice.
In the revered land that prizes white and noble character, the art of silverwork has been handed down across generations, with its silver water holding the fading moments of history and memories. Unlike gold, which bears the title "king of treasures," or coral and pearls, which are far harder to obtain, silver has for centuries been viewed as a precious commodity closely tied to daily life.
Historical accounts from the Central Dynasty, the Eastern Roman Empire, and Arabia record that, beginning in the Tubo period, the craftsmanship of gold and silver utensils in Tibetan areas was celebrated throughout Eurasia.
Crafted by Tubo artisans, silver rings, figurines, bowls, and bottles once became treasured belongings of royal households worldwide. In the Tubo silverware that survives to the present, observers can still detect the impact of various regional cultures on Tibet, including Central Asian animal motifs and ancient Greek mythological characters found on these artifacts.
Tibetan silver-encrusted wooden bowls (དངུལ་ཤན་) can be roughly divided into two sorts: those with silver-encrusted rims (དངུལ་ཁ་མ་) and those fully encrusted with silver (དངུལ་ཤན་མ་). Meanwhile, “Wooden Silver-Encrusted Bowl and Silver Bowl Cover,” dating to the late 19th century, belongs to the Rubin Museum collection. As for the most renowned Tubo silverwork today, it is the “Gilt Silver Animal Head Silver Drinking Vessel,” which has long been acknowledged as the imperial utensil of the Tubo King Songtsen Gampo and is housed in Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple.
According to tradition, the great master Tsongkhapa uncovered this exquisite drinking vessel as a hidden treasure. Its decoration depicts an intoxicated old man supported by two young men on one side, while on the other side people perform dances with Central Asian origins. Throughout the Ganden Podrang period, rulers ordered the collection of every possible gold and silver object dating from the Tubo era, aiming to highlight the connection between their political power and the ancient kingdom.
The "Silver Bowl with Lion Carvings from the Tubo Period," which predates the 7th century and measures 8.5 centimeters in height, belongs to Jeremy Pine and was photographed by Mark French. This habit of collecting—termed "kingdom worship"—can be traced to the 10th century, after the empire had fallen, when practitioners carried gold and silver objects from the Zayeba cave temple to the courts of various rulers in Western Tibet, then the main cultural hub of the post-imperial period.
The 'Gilt silver animal-shaped wine bottle from the Tibetan Tubo period,' dating to the 7th century and stored in the Jokhang Temple, has received extensive descriptions from classical scholars who view it as resembling a royal item. Its patterns and imagery call to mind the 'Sogdian style.' The 'Prajnaparamita Sutra Manuscript with Illustrations,' from the late 14th century, belongs to the Rubin Museum's collection; the scripture was copied in silver ink, with gold ink marking key points, while the left illustration portrays the Vajra-hand and the right one shows Manjushri riding a lion. The 'Sixth Karmapa Silver Statue,' dating to the late 17th century, stands 12.7 cm tall and is housed in the Jokhang Temple. As for the animal carvings on the silver bowl's surface, some have identified them as 'wild boars.
Scholars writing on Tibetan craftsmanship typically classify silver-related crafts into three main groups: mining, refining, and shaping. From these, eighteen to twenty-four distinct subtypes emerge, covering ore prospecting and separation within mining, hot and cold smelting within refining, and the making of nuggets, bars, solution, and wires within shaping.
Due to insufficient familiarity with Tibetan craftsmanship, some individuals incorrectly assume that Tibetan silver craftsmanship lacks a standardized approach.
Blue Lapis Lazuli Tibetan Medicine Thangkas: Medicinal Properties and Pharmacological Effects." At the Lhasa Mingzhu Kang Tibetan Medical Institute, during the first half of the 20th century, the ingredients comprised Mongolian silver, Han Dynasty silver ingots (horseshoe-shaped and goat hoof-shaped), and Indian silver coins. The artisans of the Dbus Gtsang Region have a saying: "Silver bowls, silver water, silver coins; silverware falls into three categories." Meanwhile, Kang region sages such as Demagexi say: "For commoners, silver bowls; for monks, silver water; for rulers, silver coins." The varying forms of silver bowls mirror the daily-life order in Tibet. Writing scriptures with silver water is an offering method unique to Tibet, and the evolution of silver coins vividly depicts Tibet's economic history.
In the first half of the 20th century, the long-standing "silver coin dispute" between Tibet and Nepal was the underlying cause of the two Kolikata battles. The conflict involved various currencies, including Nepalese silver coins, Bhutanese silver coins (often referred to collectively as Mengyu silver coins), mixed silver coins (Russian silver coins; རྒྱ་སེར་ཊམ་), and Kang Region silver coins. These monetary issues were also connected to the Menzikang Tibetan Medical Institute in Lhasa, as referenced in the "Blue Lapis Tibetan Medicine Thangka: Medicinal Properties and Functions of Various Medicines," which relates to the Battle of Yarkand.
Coins made entirely of silver were rarely seen, a situation that ran counter to market principles. The ratio of silver in the coins lay at the heart of the disagreement between the two parties. In exchange for Nepalese coins, which contained an admixture of cheaper metal, high-grade silver ingots produced by the Han Chinese and silver sourced from the Kang region made their way into Nepal.
In later years, Tibet's silver supply was primarily sourced from Han Chinese regions, northern Asia, and eastern Tibetan areas. This was because Tibet imposes strict ethical constraints on mining, which are tied to Tibetan beliefs regarding mountains and treasures.
During the early twentieth century, Lhasa was home to the Zangkang Tibetan Medical Center, which produced the artwork titled "Tibetan Tangka of Blue Lapis Lazuli Medicine: Property and Efficacy of Medications." The composition involved three metal alloys: silver alloyed with iron and tin, silver combined with lead, and red copper alloyed with silver. Meanwhile, the Songzan Museum holds a piece from the 1800s called "Three Sets of Auspicious Animal Head Pendants with Symbols," which features a Qing Dynasty official grasping a silver ingot beside a snow lion, representing enduring wealth and close ties with Tibet. In his role as the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader, it was believed in his later years that a silver stupa was in the possession of numerous Ganden Tripas.
After the death of Sakya sect founder Gongga Ningbo (1092–1158), his students and family members created a life-size silver statue of him. In biographical literature, this work is known as the "Silver Stupa of Wisdom" (ཤེས་རབ་དངུལ་གདུང་), with silver regarded as a symbol of "wisdom and experience." Separately, a "Wooden Prayer Table with Silver Plated Auspicious Patterns" from the mid-18th century, belonging to the Gelug school and held in the Rubin Museum collection, has its top layer engraved with the Seven Precious Emblems.
In Tibetan culture, "sun and moon" and "gold and silver" are two equivalent concepts: gold signifies the father, silver the mother, and all precious treasures accompany them like offspring. "The hair on top was carefully carved from silver threads, shimmering like moonlight" demonstrates the wise nature of the elderly sage. Silver should also be used to emphasize noble character, while a pure heart should be handed down to future generations like silver.
An old saying goes, 'To be like silver, both inside and out are pure.' The Zanabazar Fine Arts Museum holds the mid-19th-century 'Silver-Plated Eight Buddha Stupa: Vajrasattva Stupa.' 'The Golok Man and His Wife,' photographed by Rabden Lepcha in April 1921, is part of the collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford; the silver plate decoration behind the woman on the right is visible in the image. Silver plate headgear and back ornaments were common among Tibetans. Past memories are condensed in the silver.