Tibetan Monastery Floral Rug

A night sky, three peonies, and clouds with somewhere to be.

This monastery floral rug comes from Tibet and dates to the 19th century. It is wool. Tibetans used small pile rugs like this as seats and sleeping mats, laid on low platforms in homes and monasteries alike. A blue-black field carries three large blossoms on winding stems, two in slate blue and one in coral. Orange scalloped forms and rainbow-banded rocks crowd the corners, and small clouds drift in from the sides. Just under six feet long and about three wide.

The flowers are not in season. They have not noticed.