- Title
- High Altar Table
- Date Made
- 17th-18th century
- Medium
- Wood with mineral pigments and gesso
- Dimensions
- 41 x 40 x 19 1/2 in. (104.14 x 101.6 x 49.53 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2010.157
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This is an unusually high altar table of the type associated with high lamas or VIPs and typically located next to their thrones. The legs and frame of the table are faux bamboo with raised gesso cloud and jewel designs. The front openwork central panel is carved in the center with the half-avian, half-human Garuda guarding flaming jewels issued from a lotus flanked by rearing dragons bearing flaming jewels, all set in a field of scrolling foliage. A snarling tiger is in the lower left corner, while a snarling snow lion is in the opposite lower corner. The central panel is surrounded by a raised gesso border of dragons and flaming jewels. The rectangular side panels are each adorned with an eight-spoked Buddhist Wheel of the Law (dharmachakra) with blue clouds forming the hub and a central medallion of a multicolored yin-yang or taijitu symbol. Lower narrow panels around the front and sides feature a series of linked cloud forms similar to pendant trefoils.
See David Kamansky, ed., Wooden Wonders: Tibetan Furniture in Secular and Religious Life (Pasadena: Pacific Asia Museum and Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2004), pp. 214-215, no. 39.
