Tibetan Altar

The altar was originally built into the walls of a Tibetan home, so to transport it, the altar was disassembled and removed from its original support. At the museum, the doors, panels, drawers, and cabinets were reassembled. A replacement framework was engineered, guided by the patterns of soiling and remaining wooden joinery, and was then attached with tenons slotted into the mortises of the altar. No glue or screws were used, in keeping with the original construction method. Part of this new framework can be seen in the photograph.

First, flaking paint was re-adhered to the wood surface with a custom glue. After this paint was stabilized, the remaining painted surfaces were cleaned to reveal brilliant colors that had been obscured by soot and grime. In Tibetan-Buddhist practice, the soot is considered a by-product of burning offertory butter lamps and thus there are no cultural objections to its removal. The rich variety of hues and designs that were uncovered allowed the museum to more fully appreciate the Tibetan-Buddhist aesthetic, the patron’s intent, and the artisans’ skill.

The brilliantly colored decorations on the altar were created using gilding, distemper paint (pigments suspended in animal glue), and raised decorations called khyung bur in Tibetan.

Gilding, the process of applying thin layers of real gold to an object’s surface, is a favored method of decoration. On this altar, less costly metals such as tin (a white metal) and brass (a yellow alloy of copper and zinc) were manipulated to imitate gold, with tin being used for the majority of the gilding. To make it appear golden, the tin leaf (such as that found on the raised khyung bur) was tinted with an oily mixture of turmeric, saffron, and other yellow colorants. Brass flake and brass leaf can be seen in subtle contrast with the tin leaf on the breastplate of the protector deity on a door of the right-most upper cabinet.