Sculpture: Book Covers Main Page
Decorative Art Main Page [1] Decorative Covers
[2] Figurative Covers
[3] Ranjana/Lantsha Script Covers
[4] Red Ground Covers
Video: Book Covers
Related Subjects:
- Outline Page
- Nepalese Covers
- Bon Covers
- Bodhisattvas Standing Covers
- Wrathful Covers
- Yongle & Kangxi Covers
- Illuminated Manuscripts
- Masterworks
- Confusions: Title Pages, fake book covers
- Others...
Carved wooden blocks rectangular in shape, and often gilded and painted, serve as covers for the stacks of loose-leaf pages of Himalayan books. The wood block covers can be generally divided into four main subjects based on design: decorative, figurative, lantsha script and red ground.
The earliest covers are Indian followed by Nepal, Tibet and China. The vast majority of covers that are found are Tibetan and range in age from the 10th century to the present.
Database Search: All Images
Jeff Watt 2-2005 [updated 4-2015, 7-2020]
Guardians of the Sacred Word by Rossi & Rossi.
Protecting Wisdom, Tibetan Book Covers from the MacLean Collection, Kathryn H. Selig Brown. Prestel, 2012.
