Sent from Ukraine but with an image from Tibet, called "Books on Shelves". I was so fascinated by books that look so very different that I had to do some research.
Classical Tibetan books are printed on both sides of long strips of paper. The sheets are placed one on top of each other, tied between wood or card covers, and wrapped in a cloth. A strip of material which has the title of the book is hung from the cloth cover at the narrow end so that it can easily be identified on a shelf.
The books are printed from wood blocks. The letters are marked on the wood by transfer and the wood around is carved away. The printers brush ink on the letters, put a piece of paper over the them, smooth with a soft brush, remove the paper and leave to dry. Labour intensive to say the least. More information can be found here.
The Kashag Historical Archives of Tibet, containing many of these classical books, have been nominated to be included on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.
This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.
It would pain me to think how long it took to do one book. Very interesting.
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An amazing sight, wonder how easy it is to find the book required.
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Oh my this is so impressive a post.
It makes me thankful for easy to print books as well as a little guilty for being not so appreciative of modern access to books.
A truly wonderful post .
Thank you for sharing with us today .
Until next time
Happy Trails
They look like stacks of little packages-awesome. I wonder how you read them? Is the strip of paper folded accordian style? I will go click on the link you provided and see if I can find out. Very thought provoking post. Carol
ReplyDeleteNice picture. Thanks for the description of Tibetan books.
ReplyDeleteI hope my comment made it - I will check back again.
ReplyDeleteThose must be a pain in the butt to make. Pretty interesting though. Thanks for the link, gonna pass this around.
ReplyDeleteI saw the DVD "The Tibetan Book of the Dead". The priest was reading/chanting every stand-alone "page", then he was flipping it like a postcard, towards him, to add to the new stack.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the original stack was thus restored.
Cool postcard! :)
Neat card. One can learn so much visiting the various postcard blogs. Happy PFF.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. I've never seen books like this before.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! I learned something new -- I appreciate your post!
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable, actually. Beautiful script and one that I'd not seen before. I'm glad I stopped by for a review.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the postcard and for the interesting explanation!
ReplyDeletethe yellow slips remind me of the yellow paper charms that get affixed to the foreheads of vampires to stop them coming to life in hong kong action movies! (check out Mr.Vampire to see what i mean!)
ReplyDeleteI love learning something new! Great postcard!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting and leaving a comment on my blog!
Hugs- Tete
Great postcard. Tibet fascinates me! Happy PFF!
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting, Sheila!! You are constantly teaching me something.
ReplyDeleteWow what interesting books. I think they might be a bit difficult to use though.
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