Tibetan Altar Cabinet with 44 Niches

Forty-four niches, and every one of them made to hold something.

This altar cabinet with 44 niches comes from Tibet, late 19th or early 20th century, in painted and gilded wood with glass. In Tibetan Buddhist homes and temples, altar cabinets of this kind commonly housed images, texts and offerings. Rows of small arched compartments, lined in deep red, spread out on both sides of a dark central panel. Gilded vines trail between them. Above runs a stepped cornice in a checkered pattern of red, green and blue. A plain dark plinth lies below. It stretches 80 inches long and stands 40.75 high.

The niches are empty for now. They are in no hurry.