This antique Tibetan altar cabinet is painted and decorated with traditional scholarly objects associated with wisdom. The four panels include double happiness symbols, vases and scholarly stones on the top panels and mythical creatures bincluding phoenixes and guardian lions along the smaller lower panels.

This cabinet is a classic example of a 19th century Tibetan altar cabinet and is from Central Tibet. Our team painstakingly restored this elegant piece in our Wiltshire workshops revealing the beautiful painting underneath. 
 
Constructed from pine wood decorated in the traditional Tibetan colours, these cabinets were often used in temples or as family altars & were used to store religious scrolls, silk ceremonial clothes, family jewellery and yak butter used in lamps. Original antique Tibetan cabinets are now very rare and there are many fakes on the market made in the late 20th century.

References: 

A similar form to this cabinet can be found in red & gold in Wooden Wonders: Tibetan Furniture in Secular and Religious Life by Kamansky (plate 111)

For further information on Tibetan symbolism, see Tibetan Buddhist Symbols by R Beer. 

From Tibet

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