Tibetan Furniture

Tibetans value their painted furniture highly, but their reverence of antiquities for their own sake is not particularly strong. The result is that antique Tibetan furniture is more highly valued outside Tibet than it is within, and it is becoming increasing popular among Western collectors. Tibetan Furniture is an authoritative and comprehensive resource. This book explains the forms and uses of Tibetan furniture, the construction and decoration of the main types, and the history of many designs. Examples illustrate the range of types of furniture in Tibet and the range of decoration, both painted and carved. Also presented are examples with descriptions that expand on themes. In most cases aesthetic considerations have been the primary criterion for inclusion, but the book is more than a catalog of attractive pieces. Attentive readers will learn to: identify the main types of Tibetan furniture; appreciate their origin and their uses; identify and understand the most common designs; judge the quality of pieces; and derive increased pleasure from Tibetan furniture they have bought.