Recessed Leg Reading Table

This rare, lacquer table and accompanying sutra covers were most likely a gift sent to Tibet from the Chinese court along with imperially commissioned sets of the 108 volume Tibetan Buddhist canon (Kanjur) around 1415. The table is similar in construction and incised gold-filled decoration to well-documented sutra covers made in the Chinese imperial workshops in 1410 for a special edition of the Kanjur presented to the head of the Sakya Monastery, Kunce Siba. Both the sutra covers and table are sumptuously decorated with gold-filled engraved designs (ch'iang-chin technique) of formal lotus scrolls and the eight auspicious Buddhist emblems.