Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)

• Shape the book as a pecha: print long, narrow, oblong leaves on both sides, keep them unbound between wooden boards, and fill each with one block of a few horizontal lines (seven on most Gungthang prints) inside a ruled writing frame, with a short title and the folio number in the left margin of each leaf's front. Give the title page a drawn frame round the title, from a plain rectangle to a plant scroll.
• Have a calligrapher write the master copy in headed Uchen, paste it on the block and cut it in reverse, then proof the cut block and correct it before printing.
• Print each text in one ink, black for most works and cinnabar red for the Buddha's word, on handmade paper, and accept uneven inking and the wear of old blocks.
• Let the script make the page: no display type or headings, a head mark (yig mgo) to open a text, shad strokes to end clauses, syllable dots (tsheg) to justify the lines and Lantsa letters for a Sanskrit title. Keep pictures to panels of the Buddha, masters and deities, mostly on the opening and closing leaves.
• On a prayer flag, put the wind horse with its flaming jewels in the centre, the tiger, snow lion, garuda and dragon (or their first syllables) in the corners and the sun and moon at the top. Cover the rest with mantras and leave a space for the sponsor's name.
• Print flags in black on cloth in the five element colours (blue, white, red, green, yellow), hang them in strings in high places, and let wind and sun wear them away.

Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas: the printing houses of Mang yul Gungthang in south-western Tibet (15th–16th centuries), Narthang near Shigatse, Derge in Kham (founded 1729) and Zhol in Lhasa. The first printed Kangyur was cut for the Ming Yongle emperor in 1410, in a Ming imperial workshop in China; Tibetan-language block printing had begun earlier, in the 12th-century Tangut kingdom and under the Mongol Yuan emperors, and passed to Tibetan patrons (the kingdoms of Lato, Mangyul and Ü) in the 15th century. Later Kangyur editions were also printed at Lithang (1609–1614), Coné (1721–1731) and Urga in Mongolia (1908–1910).

1. Patrick Dowdey, 'Derge Parkhang: The Auspicious Treasury of Tibetan Woodcut Printing', Rubin Museum of Art: https://rubinmuseum.org/derge-parkhang-the-auspicious-treasury-of-tibetan-woodcut-printing/
2. Rubin Museum, Project Himalayan Art glossary, 'Pecha': https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/glossary/pecha/
3. Rubin Museum, 'Woodblock Print Collection Highlights from the Derge Printing House': https://rubinmuseum.org/woodblock-print-collection-highlights-from-the-derge-printing-house/
4. Rubin Museum, Project Himalayan Art, 'A Case of Tibetan Kangyur' (Yongle edition, 1410): https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/related/a-case-of-tibetan-kangyur/
5. Rubin Museum, Project Himalayan Art, 'Woodblock Printing' (Tangut and Yuan beginnings, 15th-century shift to Tibetan patrons): https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/themes/art-making/woodblock-printing/
6. 84000, 'An Overview of the Kangyur' (dates of the xylograph editions): https://84000.co/post/an-overview-of-the-kangyur
7. British Library, 'Narthang Kanjur (Hodgson)' (blocks carved at sNar thang from 1730): https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/032-004282612
8. British Library, 'Narthang Tanjur (1904)' (blocks carved at sNar thang from 1741): https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/032-004282614
9. Library of Congress, 'Highlights of the Tibetan Rare Book Collection' (2018): https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2018/11/highlights-of-tibetan-rare-book-collection/
10. CORDIS, TiBET (Tibetan Book Evolution and Technology), final report summary: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/328247/reporting
11. TiBET project, 'Style of Editions' (writing frame, drawn title-page frames, lines per page), MIASU, University of Cambridge: https://www.miasu.socanth.cam.ac.uk/projects/tibetan-book-evolution-and-technology/style-editions
12. Natalia Yampolskaya, 'A Note on Foliation in Mongolian Pothi Manuscripts', Rocznik Orientalistyczny 68:2 (2015), 258–265 (folio number and short title on the recto in the left margin, as in Tibetan manuscripts): https://czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/82333
13. Narthang Kangyur, gZungs 'dus volume, Pema Yangtse Monastery, Sikkim (Digital Library of India scan; ruled writing frame, marginal title and folio number on the left of each front): https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.314540
14. Yasuhiko Nagano, Preface to A Catalogue of the Bon Kanjur, Senri Ethnological Reports 40 (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, 2003) (Bon Kangyur blocks cut in Gyalrong in the 18th century): http://hdl.handle.net/10502/1580
15. Penn Museum, printing block A1406: https://collections.penn.museum/collections/object/181796
16. Horniman Museum, carved wooden printing block and sample print 0.109: https://www.horniman.ac.uk/object/0.109
17. Wikipedia, 'Derge Parkhang', 'Narthang Monastery', 'Prayer flag', 'Wind Horse', 'Tibetan script', 'Uchen script', 'Ranjana script' and 'Lobsang Monlam'
18. Microsoft Typography, 'Microsoft Himalaya': https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/microsoft-himalaya
19. Google Fonts, 'Noto Serif Tibetan': https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Serif+Tibetan
20. Debian, fonts-monlam copyright file (Lobsang Monlam 2009, Tibetan glyphs by Lobsang Gonpo, GPL-3): https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//main/f/fonts-monlam/fonts-monlam_1.0-2_copyright

How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.