Dr. Agnieszka Helman-Ważny: “Tibetan Print and Papermaking Technologies”
12 June 2012
Photo: Orna Almogi
This lecture will explore technologies of Tibetan bookmaking, whose historical origins continue to pose a riddle for historians. By the time writing appeared in Tibet, the technology of papermaking had already been known in the Far East and Inner Asia. The art of papermaking may possibly have reached Tibet around 650 C.E. but the earliest preserved manuscripts on Tibetan paper are dated to the 9 th century. Tibetan paper is distinguished by its use of plants from the Thymelaeaceae family, native to the Himalayas, as raw material for the technology invented and practiced by Chinese communities.
Tibetans adopted the block printing technology as early as the twelfth century—the earliest known printed document in the Tibetan language being a small prayer printed in Khara Khoto in 1153—and have continued to carve woodblocks for printing into the twenty-first century. Because technology and environment in Tibet remained largely constant through the centuries, it is possible to reconstruct historically distant papermaking and printing projects on the basis of comparative examination of preserved books produced in different periods. The lecture will discuss methods of papermaking, carving wooden blocks, printing technologies and tools used for book production and their development over time with attention to important regional differences.
- Click here to download the invitation (PDF).
June 12th, 2012 - 18.15h
Universität Hamburg, Main building
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Raum 125
Free Entrance.