Omnipresent
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 10, 2004
Religious books, images and teaching aids might not seem a gripping field for collectors, yet from remote parts of Tibet and its Himalayan neighbour, Nepal, come fascinating books and pictures with great appeal to western buyers.
Just ask Marie-Francoise Fatton, a Sydney-based dealer in Himalayan art, about the colourful tsakali, or painted initiation cards, that are among the more modestly priced items in her Woollahra gallery.
"I take 20 or 30 to New York, where they sell like hot cakes," she says of her annual visits to the Arts of Pacific Asia Show at the Armory in the US cultural capital, where she will again be among a small Australian contingent of exhibitors this month (March 25-28).
The cards, which show Bodhisattvas (enlightened ones) including the glowering Vajrapaniand other figures from the large cast of deities and semi-deities that make up the Buddhist-Hindu pantheon, are kept in monasteries and used for meditation and as an aid in teaching novice monks.
Some of these images show the deities in congress with their consorts - a favourite yin and yang theme - and are apparently designed to test the novices' abilities to keep their mind on matters spiritual.
They are painted in bright watercolours on parchment or paper, and mostly date from the 1800s and 1900s, though some go back as far as the 1100s. Pigments derived from vegetable and mineral sources remained in use through much of the Himalayan region until the late 19th century.
Most bear the name of the deity or a mantra handwritten on the back. Some have extra backing so they can be mounted on poles and carried in ritual processions.
Many of these delightful small images, which have qualities in common with Indian miniatures and the larger tangka (portable images on cloth), cost $350 or less.
Also originally found in Himalayan monasteries and villages are books and manuscripts on religious or ritual themes, featuring decorative covers of carved and painted wood. Bright colours such as vibrant reds, blues, greens and yellows are favoured, often with traces of gilding.
The largest book cover panels are said to come from books kept in monasteries and the smaller sizes from those used in homes, but it's also possible that the smaller books were used by travellers and teachers.
The designs include auspicious symbols relating to the book's content or theme. Monks, Bodhisattvas, swastikas or stylised peacocks and cranes are favourites, along with mantras such as "Om".
Tibetan books and tracts are not bound at the spine like western books but comprise separate pages with Tibetan or Sanskrit text, often both, sandwiched between wooden panels. The pages are wide and shallow, with the texts either copied by hand or printed from wood blocks, and sometimes include painted miniatures.
The book is held together with a silk ribbon or belt, complete with a buckle. Thus "bound", it can be stored on its longest edge, the title being carved on the lower lip of the top panel so the book can be selected at will.
Nepalese books are similar except the outer side of the wooden panel is sometimes left plain while the inner side may be painted. Title pages are sometimes finely painted and gilded, and the interior pages bear two central holes so they can be strung together on cords.
The manuscripts were read or chanted at monastic ceremonies, and the books themselves were sacred, in line with the great importance of the written word in Buddhism (and other faiths).
Thus they were kept in bookcases adjacent to the main altar, close to the most revered images.
Single covers from Tibetan and Nepalese books regularly appear at auction in London and New York, with 13th- and 14th-century examples in good condition commanding up to $30,000.
My collection Marie-Francoise Fatton
Marie-Francoise Fatton made her first trip to Nepal in 1979, travelling overland from France with her partner. There she encountered many displaced Tibetans, and they and their culture became her passion.
"In those days there wasn't always a map," Fatton recalls, "so there wasn't always a hotel". When that happened, the couple slept in the car. "When you're 28 you don't have the fear you have when you're older," she says. Soon she was dealing regularly with the Tibetans. Many objects she kept, but she also began trading with collectors and museums.
Swiss-born but raised in Lyons, Fatton grew up in a home surrounded by antiques and art, which helped give her "a good eye" and a knowledge of patina - the glow that age imparts to an object's surface.
Her grandmother was born in the Ukraine and Fatton believes the mountains and the steppes are in her blood. Perhaps that also prompted an early interest in Central Asia, Tibet and the Old Silk Road, inspired by the intrepid western visitors who explored these wild mountains and deserts and wrote of their experiences. Of her first trip, she says: "I thought the closest I could go was Kathmandu."
She moved to Australia in 1983 but has been back to Nepal and Tibet many times since, acquiring pieces for her Woollahra gallery, Au Lion des Neiges (At the Home of the Snow Lion), which shares premises with Peter Lane Gallery. She rents a small house in the Nepalese capital, Lhasa, and regards it as her second home.
STARTER GUIDE
$350
Tibetan tsakali, painted cards used to educate monks, are among the most affordable types of Tibetan art. Most date from the 1800s or 1900s.
$1350
Miniature illustrations from a Nepalese book, 18th/19th century, depicting the five lives of the Buddhist goddess Vasudhara in various colours.
$13,000
Nepalese book, circa 1600, complete with handwritten Sanskrit text. The inside of the wood covers is painted with five Buddhas and their consorts.
Correction on 24 Mar 2004
Correction: In the Collect column on Tibetan books on March 10, two illustrations were transposed. The main illustration depicting Vasudhara should have appeared as the $1350 Starter Guide item.
© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald