Style combination · Pairs well

Thai Yantra Diagrams × Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

Both are consecrated Buddhist signs printed in one ink on paper and cloth and hung up for protection and fortune. The yantra's grid of cells and the flag's field of mantras round a central figure share a logic, so they suit a calm, devotional layout of text-as-pattern, made only with practitioners.

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

Mix them and make something Thai Yantra Diagrams Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Thai Yantra Diagrams, their arrangement from Thai Yantra Diagrams, 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.

Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

Type from Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture: Brush & pen calligraphy
Hand-lettering
Colour from Thai Yantra Diagrams: Monochrome
Limited spot colours
Form from Thai Yantra Diagrams: Geometric primitives
Folk & sacred symbols
Composition from Thai Yantra Diagrams: Central symmetry
Framed panels
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 · Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture

Light

Yatra One; 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

Text · Thai Yantra Diagrams

Thai protective diagrams in which Pali formulae, written in Khom, a sacred script derived from Khmer, are packed into squares, circles, triangles, spires and the outlines of Buddhas, monks and tigers, often framed by lines of script. Built from formulae attested in Khom inscriptions since the 15th century and drawn in manuals that survive from the late Ayutthaya period, they are printed in one ink on cheap cloth as pha yant and hung over doors, and tattooed by monks and ajarn as sak yant, such as the nine-spired Gao Yord of Wat Bang Phra.

EB Garamond; Thai Yantra Diagrams used Khom Thai (akson khom), the Khmer-derived script used for Pali formulae and heart syllables and Mul (round) Khmer script in Cambodian-lineage yantras, distinguishable from Khom only by small variants

The colours

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

Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

#f2ede1 ground · 36%
#1d1b18 ink · 14%
#d9b44a accent · 18%
#b3282d accent · 14%
#2f4f8f accent · 10%
#3d8a4c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f2ede1;
  --ink: #1d1b18;
  --accent-1: #d9b44a;
  --accent-2: #b3282d;
  --accent-3: #2f4f8f;
  --accent-4: #3d8a4c;
  --font-display: "Yatra One", cursive;
  --font-text: "EB Garamond", serif;
}

Use it with care

Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams: Yantras are consecrated Buddhist and Brahmanic protective diagrams in living use: their Khom formulae are incantations, sak yant are given by monks and ajarn within master–disciple lineages under precepts the wearer must keep, and pha yant are blessed objects hung high over doors. Do not use real or imitation yantras, Khom letters or Buddha images as texture, logos, fashion prints or tattoos without a master, do not place them low (on floors, footwear, seats) or crop and mirror them, do not invent pseudo-Khom, and work with Thai practitioners and readers of Khom rather than tracing designs from temples or tattoo photographs. Image models cannot write Khom and will invent letters: in generated images leave the cells blank or set legible secular Thai, and never present the result as a real or working yantra.

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

1700–present · Southeast Asia Thai Yantra (Yant) Diagrams Thai protective diagrams in which Pali formulae, written in Khom, a sacred script derived from Khmer, are packed into squares, circles, triangles, spires and the outlines of Buddhas, monks and tigers, often framed by lines of script. Built from formulae attested in Khom inscriptions since the 15th century and drawn in manuals that survive from the late Ayutthaya period, they are printed in one ink on cheap cloth as pha yant and hung over doors, and tattooed by monks and ajarn as sak yant, such as the nine-spired Gao Yord of Wat Bang Phra. 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 Thai Yantra Diagrams

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