Tibetan craftsmen in eastern Tibet were known for their metalwork, especially ornate saddles of pierced iron and gold demask. Arms and armor curator Donald La Rocca and Tibetan military historian Alice Travers examine a rare example where the context of its creation is known, along with the fascinating twentieth-century career of its commissioner, Yuthok Tashi Dhondup, a nobleman, military officer, governor, and soccer-team captain. Such luxury objects were important public displays of wealth and status in Tibet.
The British Empire was the largest empire in world history, ruling almost a quarter of the world’s land area and population at its height in the mid-twentieth century. The British achieved hegemony in India after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and soon came to rule large areas of the Himalayas, including Kashmir and Ladakh. Several small Himalayan kingdoms, including Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, were allowed to maintain semi-independence as buffer-states against Qing-controlled Tibet. The British briefly invaded Tibet in 1903–1904. After the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, the British became a major cultural and military influence on the Ganden Podrang government in Lhasa. India achieved independence in 1947, ending British rule in the Himalayas.
The Dalai Lamas are a tulku lineage that has played a central role in Tibetan history for the last five hundred years. In 1577 a Mongol khan gave the Geluk monk Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588) the title “Dalai Lama,” combining the Mongolian word for ocean, dalai (a reference to the depth of his knowledge), and the Tibetan word for guru, lama. Later, two previous incarnations were retroactively identified. The fifth incarnation, Ngawang Gyatso (1617–1682), allied with another Mongol khan to unite most of the Tibetan Plateau, forming the Ganden Podrang government that would govern Tibet until 1959. Since the Communist takeover, the current Fourteenth Dalai Lama has lived in exile at Dharamshala in India. The Dalai Lamas are understood to be emanations of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
The Ganden Podrang was the government system that ruled Central Tibet, in one form or another, from 1642 to 1959. Headed by the Dalai Lamas, the Ganden Podrang had a dual system that included both powerful Geluk monastic officials and secular members of the Central Tibetan noble families. From the eighteenth century onward, the Ganden Podrang had a central governing council called the “kashag,” or “parliament.”
Gilding is a metalworking technique in which a fine golden surface is applied over a statue made of bronze. In Newar metalworking workshops, gilding is typically done with fire and mercury, which gives sculptures a warm finish (but is poisonous for their makers). In Tibetan contexts sometimes gold dust is mixed with glue and applied with a brush (often called “cold gold”), especially to a deity’s face to gain merit.
Inlay is a decorative technique of creating a depression in a surface and then filling it with some other material. Metal can be inlaid with precious stones or glass, or more precious forms of metal, for instance, brass inlaid with silver and copper. Wood can be inlaid with silver, or other metal and conch. Tibetans tend to favor turquoise inlay while the Newars employ a range of colored glass and semi-precious stones.
Saddles with Ornate Metalwork as Objects of Rank and Status
This luxurious saddle was among the ceremonial trappings of Yuthok Tashi Dhondup when he was governor general (dochi) of eastern Tibet, or Kham. Tibetan horses were prized for their strength, endurance, and agility since at least the seventh century and continued to be utilized for transportation, agriculture, and warfare into the modern era. The practice of adorning saddles with ornamental plates of gold, silver, or gilt copper occurred among the nomadic cultures of Central Asia by the fourth century. Saddles clad with plates of pierced and chiseled iron and decorated with gold or silver damascening, a distinctive feature of fine Tibetan saddles (serga), existed by the late fourteenth to the early fifteenth century (figs. 2 and 3). These and other types of pierced ironwork—censers, cup cases, pen cases, and certain ritual objects—are found from then onward mainly in Tibet, and to a lesser extent in China, suggesting that this style of ironwork was an innovation of Tibetan or Mongolian artisans, possibly originating in the late Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). Ornate ceremonial saddles were included among the valued possessions of Tibetan monasteries and aristocratic households, and even accorded a designated saddle storeroom (chibga khang) in the Potala Palace. Their use as important signifiers of both secular and religious rank and status continued in Tibet until the mid-twentieth century.
Fig. 2
Set of Saddle Plates; Tibetan or Chinese; ca. 1400; iron, gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise; 10 7/8 × 23½ × 13¾ in. (27.6 × 59.7 × 43.9 cm); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Purchase, Gift of William H. Riggs, by exchange, and Kenneth and Vivian Lam Gift, 1999; 1999.118a–g; CC0 – Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
Fig. 3
Detail of Set of Saddle Plates showing the cantle plate (rear); Tibetan or Chinese; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Purchase, Gift of William H. Riggs, by exchange, and Kenneth and Vivian Lam Gift, 1999; 1999.118d; CC0 – Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
Yuthok Tashi Dhondup: Aristocrat, Government Official, and Military Officer
One of the latest, possibly the very latest, complete example in this long tradition is the saddle and tack (including bridle, crupper, and stirrups) (fig. 4) of Yuthok Tashi Dhondup (1906–1983) (fig. 5), a Tibetan nobleman and government official (zhungzhab). The Lhasa aristocracy (kudrak) encompassed more than two hundred families, which owned hereditary estates across central Tibet and were obligated to serve as officials in the Tibetan government, called (1642–1959). This aristocratic elite was divided into a hierarchy of four subgroups, among the most prestigious of which were the yabzhi families, comprising the six ennobled families of former . One of them, the Yuthok, stems from the Tenth Dalai Lama in the early nineteenth century. The name references a famous Lhasa bridge covered with turquoise-hued roof (thok) tiles, located near the family’s house (fig. 6). The prominent use of turquoise (yu) on Yuthok Tashi Dhondup’s saddle likely alludes to the name Yuthok, literally, “turquoise roof.”
Fig. 4
Stirrups belonging to the equestrian set of Yuthok Tashi Dhondup; Tibet; ca. 1943–1947; copper alloy, gold; height 7 in. (17.8 cm); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Purchase, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger and Kenneth and Vivian Lam Gifts; funds from various donors, by exchange; Laird and Kathleen Landmann and Bernice and Jerome Zwanger Gifts; and funds from various donors; 2008; 2008.81b, c.
Tse Ten Tashi; Turquoise Bridge; Lhasa; 1951; photograph; The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; 2000.36.2.13; image courtesy of The Newark Museum of Art
Yuthok Tashi Dhondup entered government service as a lay official (drungkhor) in 1924. Like many other lay officials during this period, when the Tibetan army was being strengthened and modernized, he alternated between holding civil and military positions. The latter represented a significant part of his career; the British considered him one of the best military officers in Tibet. In 1926, he became a secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers (kadrung). Returning to the army in 1932, Yuthok was promoted to general (dapon), fourth rank. Early in 1933 he was appointed senior general (with Taring Jigme as junior general) of a new elite regiment (drongdrak makgar), colloquially called the Trapchi regiment. After the regiment was disbanded in 1934, Yuthok remained a general, commanding the Dalai Lama’s bodyguard (kusung makgar), again with Taring Jigme as his junior commander, from 1935 to 1938 (fig. 5). He was removed by Regent Reting from active army service in September 1938 and granted the honorific title of taiji, which elevated him to the third rank of government officials. Along with other military and civil posts that followed, Yuthok captained Tibet’s first football team, Lhasa United (fig. 7). In 1942 he was again promoted, receiving the honorific title of dzasak, and appointed governor general of eastern Tibet (dochi), a position carrying both civil and military responsibilities. He left Lhasa to take up residence in Chamdo, capital of Kham region, arriving in April 1943, and returning to Lhasa in October 1947.
During his sojourn in Kham, Yuthok commissioned the saddle and equestrian equipment discussed here from artisans in Derge (present-day Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China), a renowned center for decorative metalwork. The saddle is distinguished by elaborate mounts comprising intricately pierced, embossed, and gilt copper plates set with turquoise (fig. 8). It is exceptional for its fine craftsmanship and artistic excellence; for being one of the few extant Tibetan ceremonial saddles of which the original patron is identifiable; and as a documented example of the late “Derge pierced-gold” (derge sertsak) metalworking style.
Ceremonial Trappings and Luxury Objects in Traditional Aristocratic Life
In traditional Tibet, aristocrats from prestigious families displayed their social standing through material possessions of great quality that were used both in everyday life and on ceremonial occasions, such as their official’s robes, headdresses, and jewelry, as well as elaborate equestrian equipment. Lay officials above the fourth rank regularly took part in festivities and processions and attended state functions, in which they would ride magnificently caparisoned horses. The principal events in which saddles such as the one presented here were employed included the ceremonies of the New Year, or Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa, and the compulsory horse-riding and target-shooting contests for lay officials (drungkhor tselgyuk) (fig. 9). The opulent costumes and trappings that often accompanied these saddles are documented in a photograph of the Tibetan aristocrat and government official “George” Dundul Namgyal Tsarong, who can be seen sitting astride a very similar saddle while taking part in the New Year Festival in 1950 (fig. 10). Another rare example of an elaborate ceremonial saddlewith a known owner is that of Surkhang Wangchen Tseten, Yuthok Tashi Dhondup’s relative (through the family of his second wife), which was also made in Derge. It was commissioned by Surkhang Wangchen Tseten when he served as governor general of eastern Tibet in the 1930s.
Heinrich Harrer (Austrian, 1912–2006); George Tsarong in Yasor Costume; 1950; photograph; Universität Zürich Völkerkundemuseum, Zurich; VZM 400.07.23.002; image courtesy Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zürich
Footnotes
1
For a fourth-century Xianbei example, see Desroches. 2000, 163, cat. no. 152; Watt et al. 2005, 124–25, cat. no. 25.
2
La Rocca et al. 2006, 214–51.
3
Jiang Huaiying 1996, 1:15.
4
Petech 1973, 28; Yuthok (1990) 1995, 154.
5
Government of India Press 1949, 146; see also the government list of lay officials entitled “Shing byi [Wood bird year, i.e., 1924] roll,” reproduced in Petech 1973, 248. In this list, G.yu thog sras Bkra shis don grub is mentioned in the following way (our translation): “G.yu thog sras Bkra shis don grub, aged 19 [tibetico more, that is, eighteen years old according to Western reckoning], entered government service in 1924, currently has no government position.”
6
Government of India Press 1938, 79.
7
This biographical account is based on the following secondarysources: Petech 1973, 31; Taring (1970) 1986, 132; Yuthok (1990) 1995, 180, 242; G.yu thog 2002, 14; Goldstein 1989; and on the following primary sources: Caccia 1935, 6; Norbu Dhondup 1937; Norbu Dhondup 1938; Tsering 1947; Government of India Press 1938, 79; Government of India Press 1949, 146. See Tenzin Dickie 2016 for a presentation ofhis later career, including while in exile.
8
This title of Mongol origin, referring to both lay and monk officials, bestows the third rank in the government officials’ rank ladder.
9
For a more detailed discussion of the construction, materials, and iconography of the saddle and its tack, see La Rocca 2014b, 201–3. Yuthok Tsering Dolkar and her daughter Yuthok Tsezom very kindly confirmed many facts about the history of the saddle, and Yangchen Lakar provided additional useful information (via letters, emails, and verbal communications, 2007–8).
10
Concerning the reputation of Derge as a center for fine metalwork, see Clarke 2006, 29; Rockhill 1895, esp. 692, 695–96, 705, 712–13, 716–17, 740.
11
Perhaps because the craft of fine ironworking was in decline, plates of nonferrous metal, particularly embossed copper, rather than pieced iron became more typical for ceremonial saddles from some point in the nineteenth century on. A notable exception is the late saddle with tack and matching sword in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003.230.1–.3a–e, for which see La Rocca 2006, 234–39.
12
Literally “Derge pierced gold,” usually referring to pierced, chiseled, and gilt ironwork, or, as in this case, gilt copper. This term, as it relates to the saddle, was pointed out by Yangchen Lakar (written communication, December 3, 2007).
13
Travers 2011.
14
H. Richardson 1993, 31–59; Karsten 1983, 131.
15
His first wife was from the Langdun (glang mdun) family but passed away after childbirth while he was undergoing military training in Gyantse in 1932; see Taring (1970) 1986, 132. For information on his other marriages, see his second wife’s autobiography, Yuthok (1990) 1995, 313; Tenzin Dickie 2016.
16
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.427.1 (published in La Rocca 2006, 242–43, cat. no. 126).
Further Reading
La Rocca, Donald J., 2006. Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet. With essays by John Clarke, Amy Heller, and Lozang Jamspal. Exhibition catalog. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richardson, Hugh E. 1993. Ceremonies of the Lhasa Year. London: Serindia.
Yutok, Dorje Yudon. (1990) 1995. The House of the Turquoise Roof. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion.
The British Empire was the largest empire in world history, ruling almost a quarter of the world’s land area and population at its height in the mid-twentieth century. The British achieved hegemony in India after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and soon came to rule large areas of the Himalayas, including Kashmir and Ladakh. Several small Himalayan kingdoms, including Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, were allowed to maintain semi-independence as buffer-states against Qing-controlled Tibet. The British briefly invaded Tibet in 1903–1904. After the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, the British became a major cultural and military influence on the Ganden Podrang government in Lhasa. India achieved independence in 1947, ending British rule in the Himalayas.
The Dalai Lamas are a tulku lineage that has played a central role in Tibetan history for the last five hundred years. In 1577 a Mongol khan gave the Geluk monk Sonam Gyatso (1543–1588) the title “Dalai Lama,” combining the Mongolian word for ocean, dalai (a reference to the depth of his knowledge), and the Tibetan word for guru, lama. Later, two previous incarnations were retroactively identified. The fifth incarnation, Ngawang Gyatso (1617–1682), allied with another Mongol khan to unite most of the Tibetan Plateau, forming the Ganden Podrang government that would govern Tibet until 1959. Since the Communist takeover, the current Fourteenth Dalai Lama has lived in exile at Dharamshala in India. The Dalai Lamas are understood to be emanations of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
The Ganden Podrang was the government system that ruled Central Tibet, in one form or another, from 1642 to 1959. Headed by the Dalai Lamas, the Ganden Podrang had a dual system that included both powerful Geluk monastic officials and secular members of the Central Tibetan noble families. From the eighteenth century onward, the Ganden Podrang had a central governing council called the “kashag,” or “parliament.”
Gilding is a metalworking technique in which a fine golden surface is applied over a statue made of bronze. In Newar metalworking workshops, gilding is typically done with fire and mercury, which gives sculptures a warm finish (but is poisonous for their makers). In Tibetan contexts sometimes gold dust is mixed with glue and applied with a brush (often called “cold gold”), especially to a deity’s face to gain merit.
Inlay is a decorative technique of creating a depression in a surface and then filling it with some other material. Metal can be inlaid with precious stones or glass, or more precious forms of metal, for instance, brass inlaid with silver and copper. Wood can be inlaid with silver, or other metal and conch. Tibetans tend to favor turquoise inlay while the Newars employ a range of colored glass and semi-precious stones.
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