torkam

painted wood, iron fittings
Tibet, early 20th cent.
size: 54 x 83,5 cm; 49 cm deep.x 79 cm; high: 80 cm.

A torkam is a special ritual cabinet, to place the offering-tormas: conical forms, made of tsampa.

This torkam is meant for the offerings to a fierce Dharmapala, and is painted with fantastic tantric offerings, like the Offering of the Five Senses, in a kapala.
The inside of the front-doors are painted, crudely, with the skins of a tiger and an elephant.

for the type see: Chris Buckley, Tibetan Furniture, London, 2005, p. 195 ff; David Kamanksy (ed.), Wooden Wonders, Tibetan Furniture in Secular and Religious Life, Pasadena, 2004, p. 143 ff., p. 308 ff. (nrs 127-135).