View source for PMA 2004-7, Tibetan Buddhist altar (19th to 20th century)

== Information ==

In addition to Tangka, furniture plays an important role in worship in the Buddhist tradition.The buddhist altar collected by Philadelphia Museum of Art was originally built into the walls of a Tibetan home, most likely in a room reserved as a sacred space for daily ritual worship by Tibetan-Buddhist lay practitioners [1].


[[File:Tibetan altar small.PNG|center|frame|© Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA Polychrome domestic altar (PMA 2004-7-1a1--1e1i), Tibetan, late 19th-early 20th c.]] Photo accessed from [http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/634-549.html#object/277478|Philadelphia Museum of Art online catalog]

== Summary of results ==

[[File:Tibetan altar detail.PNG|center|frame|Detail of the gilded altar door. image adopted from reference [1] with author's permission ]]

Small fragments from the top of the metallic decoration was removed, extracted and analyzed by Liquid chromatography-diode array detector-mass spectrometry (LC-DAD-MS). It was found that the altar door showing imitation gilding with berberine-toned brass flake, brass leaf and tin leaf. LC-DAD-MS analysis showed berberine [M+1 352] and palmatine [M+1 336] and jatrorrhizine [M+1 338], compounds found in barberry species.  LC profiles of the altar colorant and Tibetan barberry ([http://cameo.mfa.org/wiki/Berberis_dye_(berberis_tibetasia)_LC  ''Berberis tibetacae'']) were similar. Detailed analytical results including pigments applied to the alter could be found in publications by B. Price [1] and X. Zhang [2].

== HPLC profile ==

[[File:Tibetan Altar result.PNG|center|frame|Absorbance at 350nm (mAU). analyzed by X. Zhang [1]]]

== Identified compounds ==

== References ==

[1] Price, B., Malenka, S., Sutherland, K., Paul, K., Kingery, A., and Zhang, X., A Tibetan Polychrome Domestic Altar and Four Six-Panel Cabinets: Materials Analysis, Dating, and Conservation. ICOM-CC, New Delhi, India, September, 919-925 (2008).

[2] Zhang, X., Mouri C., Mikage M., and Laursen, R. A., Identification of Sources of Protoberberine -Alkaloids Used as Yellow Dyes in Asian Objects of Historical Interest. Studies in Conservation 55 177-185 (2010).

 

[[Category:Dye Analysis]]
[[Category:Cultural Artifacts]]
[[Category:Objects]]