A CORAL-GROUND SILK WOVEN 'DOUBLE BUDDHIST MANTRA' PANEL

Mid-15th/early 17th century

Mid-15th/early 17th century
The panel of rectangular shape, finely interwoven in brocade weave with Lanca characters in Kinran technique, flat strips of double-layered paper faced with gold leaf, all within a gilded border on a deep coral-red ground, selvage on one edge showing, mounted.
45cm (17 6/8in) long x 35cm (13 6/8in) wide.

十五世紀中期至十七世紀早期 珊瑚紅地梵文織金錦

Provenance: Linda Wrigglesworth, London

來源：倫敦Linda Wrigglesworth

Both the text and the framing band on the present panel are brocaded in gold against a tightly woven ground of rust-red silk. The selvages along the left and right weft edge indicate that this panel preserves the full breath of the loom width.

The characters depicted on the present panel represent the transliteration of a Sanskrit invocation or prayer; they are written in Lanca script, which was used in Nepal and Tibet for Buddhist mantra, and also in China for Tibetan-style Buddhist invocations and prayers. The first six syllables comprise a mantra that, from left to right, reads Oh mani padme hum which is conventionally translated as 'Oh, the jewel in the lotus remain in my heart'. The seventh syllable, reading hri, is a 'seed-character' symbolising the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, with whom this mantra is traditionally associated.

Although the shape of the present lot suggests that it may have served as cover for a Buddhist sutra or holy text, this panel may have probably been part of a vertical banner hung from a Tibetan Buddhist or Lamaist temple in China; see C.Brown, 'The Amy S.Clague Collection of Chinese Textiles', in Orientations, vol.31, no.2, February 2000, p.35.

Compare with a similar silk woven Buddhist mantra panel, mid 15th/early 17th century, illustrated in Weaving China's Past. The Amy S.Clague Collection of Chinese Textiles, Seattle, 2001, pp.38-39.