Tibetan Cabinet with Buddhist Motifs

Four green-haired figures, seated among lotus, each holding the same small green offering.

This cabinet with Buddhist motifs comes from Tibet and dates to the 19th century, in painted wood. Tibetan households and monasteries used painted cabinets like this to store ritual objects and goods, with Buddhist flowers, guardians and auspicious beasts thought to protect what lay within. Each of the four upper panels shows a figure with a fierce face on a dark blue ground, surrounded by big orange and crimson blooms. Three small drawers below hold animals among clouds. A gilded key-fret border runs around everything. Thirty-six and a half inches long and 36 high.

A very well guarded set of shelves, one assumes.