Style combination · Pairs well

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy × Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

Mongolian Buddhism printed Tibetan books (the Urga Kangyur, 1908–1910) and keeps the wind horse as khiimori; Mongolian vertical calligraphy and Tibetan horizontal lines can share a bilingual Buddhist page or emblem, with fluent readers of both.

From the research on Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

Mix them and make something Mongol Bichig Calligraphy Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy, their arrangement from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture, the finish from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

Type from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Brush & pen calligraphy
Rotated & vertical setting

Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture avoids rotated & vertical setting: this is where the two pull against each other.
Colour from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Flat fields
Primary triad
Form from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy: Folk & sacred symbols
Emblems & badges
Composition from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture: Classical text block
Repetition & rhythm
Surface from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Mongol Bichig Calligraphy

Public

Kaushan Script; Mongol Bichig Calligraphy used Classical Mongolian (Uyghur-Mongolian) script, ninety letter forms joined vertically by continuous strokes, written with a reed pen until the 18th century and with the brush after it and 'Folded' condensed forms of the script, drawn to fill emblems, logos, coins and stamps, as in the 'Mongol Uls' of the State Seal

Text · Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

Tibetan Buddhist and Bön woodblock printing, from the first printed Kangyur (1410, cut in China) and the 15th-century presses of Gungthang to the great printing houses of Narthang, Derge and Lhasa. Books take the pecha form of Indian palm-leaf pothis: long, unbound oblong leaves of headed Uchen script, justified with syllable dots, cut in reverse from a calligrapher's copy and printed in black, or in cinnabar red for the Buddha's word. The same workshops cut icons, mandalas and prayer flags: a wind horse ringed by mantras, printed on cloth in five element colours and left to fade in the wind.

Caveat; Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture used Uchen (dbu can, 'with a head'), the headed script of print, written out by monk calligraphers as master copies for the block cutters and Umê (dbu med), the headless cursive of everyday handwriting

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Mongol Bichig Calligraphy, with a counter-accent from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

#f4efe3 ground · 36%
#16130f ink · 14%
#e0a526 accent · 18%
#c4272f accent · 14%
#1d4f91 accent · 10%
#3d8a4c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f4efe3;
  --ink: #16130f;
  --accent-1: #e0a526;
  --accent-2: #c4272f;
  --accent-3: #1d4f91;
  --accent-4: #3d8a4c;
  --font-display: "Kaushan Script", cursive;
  --font-text: "Caveat", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament: Mongol bichig is the living script of Mongols in Mongolia and in Inner Mongolia, where in 2020 China moved three school subjects in Mongolian-medium schools into Mandarin, met by protests and school boycotts; UNESCO lists Mongolian calligraphy as heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, and at inscription in 2013 only three scholars were training just over twenty young calligraphers. Have every word written or checked by a fluent reader or calligrapher: letters change shape by position, so pseudo-script, mirrored text, text rotated the wrong way and letters broken up as texture read as nonsense. The Soyombo is a state symbol on the flag and emblem, and Mongolia regulates the use of its state symbols by law (Constitution, Article 12(7)): the Law on State Symbols (1994) forbids disparaging them and imitating the State Seal. The endless knot, wishing jewel and lotus are Buddhist auspicious signs; keep them and the state symbols out of trivial or demeaning uses. The khas (swastika) is an old Mongolian sign of good fortune but reads as the Nazi swastika to many audiences, so avoid it outside a context that explains it, and commission or credit Mongolian calligraphers and craftspeople rather than tracing their work.

Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags): Pecha, icon prints and prayer flags are sacred objects in living Tibetan Buddhist and Bön practice. The Kangyur is the Buddha's word (hence its cinnabar ink), icon prints guide the painting of deities, and flags carry mantras, the four dignities and prayers for a named sponsor. By tradition flags are not put on the ground or worn as clothing, and old ones are burned rather than thrown away. Do not use real or imitation pages, mantras or flags as texture, party bunting, fashion prints or logos, do not crop or mirror them, and have any Tibetan written or checked by a fluent reader. Image models cannot write Uchen and invent letters, so leave text areas blank in generated images and never present one as a real text or flag. Derge still prints by hand from its historic blocks, while Narthang's main halls were razed in 1966: credit and commission Tibetan calligraphers, carvers and printers, in Tibet and in exile, rather than tracing their blocks.

The two styles

A symmetrical ornamental design features two blue horses facing outward beside a tall gold panel bearing black vertical calligraphy. Red, blue, gold and cream cloudlike scrolls, a large blue disk and geometric side borders fill the surrounding space.

c. 1204–present · East Asia Mongol Bichig Calligraphy & Ugalz Ornament Mongolia's classical script and the auspicious ornament that frames it on state, Buddhist and household objects. Mongol bichig is an alphabet written in vertical columns that advance left to right, its letters joined down one continuous spine, and condensed into 'folded' forms for seals, emblems, coins and stamps. Around it curl ugalz, horn scrolls mirrored on a central axis, with auspicious signs (five-eyes roundel, endless knot, wishing jewel, lotus) and the Soyombo, in symmetric roundels and borders of flat blue, red, yellow, white and black. c. 1410–present · East Asia, South Asia Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags) Tibetan Buddhist and Bön woodblock printing, from the first printed Kangyur (1410, cut in China) and the 15th-century presses of Gungthang to the great printing houses of Narthang, Derge and Lhasa. Books take the pecha form of Indian palm-leaf pothis: long, unbound oblong leaves of headed Uchen script, justified with syllable dots, cut in reverse from a calligrapher's copy and printed in black, or in cinnabar red for the Buddha's word. The same workshops cut icons, mandalas and prayer flags: a wind horse ringed by mantras, printed on cloth in five element colours and left to fade in the wind.

More combinations

With Mongol Bichig Calligraphy

With Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

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