The Bhadrakalpika Sutra

This sacred text, or sutra (literally translated as “thread”), consists of 297 rectangular, double-sided, indigo-dyed pages, embellished with silver and gold script and interspersed with more than six hundred miniature paintings. Such elaborate manuscripts were worshipped as the embodiment of wisdom. It would have been wrapped in a silk cloth, protected by wooden book covers, and likely stored in the library, along with other offerings, at the Tsurphu monastery in Tibet.