bookcover for palmleave-manuscript

painted hardwood
Tibet, 18th cent.
size: 47,5 x 7,5 cm.

Finely painted in gold, and clearly, by the size, meant for a palmleave-manuscript

Surrounded by two dragons, is in the center a standing sword on a book, laying on a lotusflower. This is in Tibet the well-known emblem for the combination of Guru Padmasambhava, the Indian abbot Shantirakshita, and King Trisong Detsen: they were instrumental in the 8th century in founding the first monastery in Tibet Samye Ling.