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MAGIC CARPETS FROM THE HIMALAYAS

An exhibition of Buddhist meditation carpets from a private Swiss collection will be presented by London dealer Rossi & Rossi at the Neuhoff Gallery, carpets Fuller Building, carpets 41 East 57th Street, carpets New York, carpets from Monday 17 to Tuesday 25 March 2008. Voyage in the magic realm: Tantric carpets from the Himalayas will comprise 15 tantric carpets from Tibet, carpets China and Mongolia dating from the late 18th and 19th centuries, carpets offered for prices from $15, carpets000 to $150, carpets000. These extraordinary carpets were commissioned for revered Buddhist sanctuaries. Their unusual imagery of skinned humans, carpets bound demons, carpets skulls and severed heads derives from the cremation grounds of north India where yogis practised meditation. The exhibition coincides with New York’s Asia Week, carpets other dealer exhibitions and the International Asian Art Fair.

Woollen carpets have provided practical comfort and aesthetic pleasure in Tibet for more than a millennium. They are used for sitting (kha gang ma), carpets sleeping (kha gdan, carpets nyal gdan) and to adorn the walls, carpets ceilings, carpets pillars (kha ‘thum), carpets doorways (sgo yol) and, carpets occasionally, carpets the floors (sa gdan). Traditionally, carpets many Tibetans are periodically itinerant (for trade, carpets pilgrimage or grazing) and the easily portable woollen carpet was multi-functional.

The carpets featured in this exhibition, carpets however, carpets are chiefly associated with social activities and religious practices well beyond the mundane. Their potent imagery attests to their use in a variety of public and private Buddhist rites, carpets particularly those associated with worship of the protector deities. They were seats of power during meditation or important ceremonies; served as platforms for special ritual implements; established the sacrificial ground for esoteric rituals of invocation and exorcism; were symbolic offerings to the protective deities; and some indeed may have been used as effigies in ritual performances.

Several wool, carpets cotton and dye examples come from Ningxia in north-west China. One features a male effigy, carpets naked and bound at the ankles and wrists by heavy chains, carpets within a ritual triangle (dharmodaya), carpets each corner supported by a severed head. This carpet is unusually large by Tibetan standards, carpets 202 x 171 cm, carpets and is likely to have been commissioned for a particular use. The iconography indicates that the carpet was used as a mat on which to conduct rites associated with destruction of the effigy (ling ga). Such bound human figures are also known as lu (glud), carpets ‘substitute offering’ or ‘scapegoat’. They were presented as appeasements to wrathful deities and served as potent visual symbols of negative forces to be ritually destroyed.

Another carpet represents a flayed male (g.yang gzhi) whose arms stretch overhead as if bound at the wrists. He has the fangs of a dog or a wolf and his mouth is held in a grimace. The striated inner surface of the skin is clearly indicated, carpets as are the genitals of the ritual offering. The hands and feet of the effigy extend into the carpet’s border, carpets partly obscuring the array of freshly severed heads. The image may be compared with several other published examples, carpets each unique in physiognomy and body type but otherwise clearly representing the same ritual offering of a flayed male with long hair, carpets symmetrically arranged on a red ground. They would have served either as symbolic offerings to the Buddhist protector deities, carpets or as seats for meditation. A third wool, carpets cotton, carpets and dye carpet, carpets probably from China, carpets depicts a flayed elephant.

The only textile in the exhibition is a felt canopy with a silk fringe which comes from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. It would have surmounted a ritual space in which offerings were made and rituals performed to protect from harm or vanquish enemies. The symmetrical design shows the skins of two blond-haired males, carpets their legs knotted together, carpets eyes extended well beyond their sockets, carpets lifeless hands grasping the tails of dragons whose long bodies wind through human skulls. At the centre is a ritual triangle (dharmodaya) resting on a sea of blood (khrag mtsho), carpets and other accoutrements of ritual practice are also displayed in this extraordinary ritual textile.

Among the Tibetan pieces is a wool, carpets cotton and dye carpet or door cover featuring two skeletons (cittipatti) linking arms in a macabre dance. Each skeleton holds a skull cup and a ritual mace surmounted by a skull; tiger skins adorn their bony hips. Such imagery is often found at the entrance to or within secret chapels (mgon khang) dedicated to the protector deities of Tibetan monasteries. Indeed, carpets it has been suggested that this carpet may have been used as a door cover to a gonkhang. A host, carpets striped curtain behind the figures resembles the striped cloth sometimes used as door coverings in Tibetan establishments. The carpet’s size, carpets 126 x 171 cm, carpets may reflect the unusual shape of entrances to the gonkhang, carpets which Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984) noted to be ‘low and narrow’. It is possible that the carpet had other uses, carpets including that of a mat for placing ritual implements, carpets or as some other appropriate accoutrement in the protector deities’ highly specialised ritual environment. It may also have been used as a seat for meditation, carpets as cittipatti were considered special protectors for practitioners of Vajrayogini meditation. This carpet was published in Rituels Tibetains: Visions secretes du Vth Dalai Lama, carpets by Nathalie Bazin, carpets Paris, carpets 2002. Published in the same book is another Tibetan wool, carpets cotton and dye carpet with a male effigy which shows a flayed man (g.yang gzhi) symmetrically arranged on a sea of blood (khrag mtsho). The powerful effigy has striking features with dark piercing eyes, carpets scowling red lips, carpets prominent cheekbones and wears large hoop earrings while his thick hair stands up in waves.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a scholarly catalogue Tantric carpets from the Himalayas written by Dr Jane Casey, carpets an art historian specialising in Tibetan art. She studied the history and philosophy of science at Harvard University, carpets before studying Himalayan art at Harvard. She was Chairman of ‘Towards a Definition of Style: The Arts of Tibet’, carpets an international symposium held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, carpets London, carpets in association with the School of Oriental and African Studies, carpets University of London (1994); and co-curator of Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet organised by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, carpets New York (1998-99).

Rossi & Rossi was founded in London in 1985 by Anna Maria Rossi who has been active in the field of Asian art for over 30 years. In 1988 she was joined by her son Fabio who started travelling to Asia with his parents at an early age and moved to London in 1983 to attend the School of Oriental and African Studies. Together, carpets Anna Maria and Fabio Rossi have established a reputation as leading dealers in traditional Indian and Himalayan art as well as contemporary Asian art, carpets particularly Tibetan. Among their clients are such institutions as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, carpets New York, carpets The Cleveland Museum of Art, carpets the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Tokyo National Museum.