Painted Tibetan Altar Cabinet - 19th Century Damchiya Sideboards The lively mottled red-orange surface

The lively mottled red-orange surface was created through the application of coloured lac on a hand-turned lathe

Used on festive occasions by street musicians -19thC

The painting is orginal from Jodhpur - 19thC

the other two are currently in our private collection

Painted Tibetan Altar Cabinet - 19th Century Damchiya Sideboards The lively mottled red-orange surfaceThis excellent example of an antique Tibetan painted altar cabinet dates to the 19th century and is from Central Tibet. Buddhist shrine cabinets like this are unusual to find now and would originally have been used for housing statues of deities. These altars were called chshom and housed in the chapel of a private home. Every home had a chapel (chkhang) and most had an altar of some fashion. Originally this would almost certainly have been made with