CIRCA: 1800’s / 19th C.
A ‘Wangden-style’ (i.e. warp-faced-back) Tibetan Tsokden – a runner or long carpet – of a design type which according to recent published research was woven to the north of Lhasa in the Meldro Gungkar region of Tibet (see Drumze – Metamorphoses of the Tibetan Carpet / Erhard & Wild / 2022). This research also points to the fact that these thick heavy carpets with their red ladder-like design* – the research calls it an antenna-like T-symbol of obscure origins – on a simple yellow background were woven specifically and exclusively for monks to sit on in a monastery. Some were even so long that they had to be woven at the monastery! These thick sturdy carpets were perfect for long periods of meditation or discourse as they provided the maximum seating insulation when placed upon cold floors.
Of note in this piece is the intriguing asymmetric design of the red ‘ladder’ – or antenna-like T-symbol – at either end, i.e. how the ‘ladder’s’ upper-most red rung is ‘closed’ across the top (in main photo), yet ‘open’ across the bottom, as this ‘ladder’ design is habitually shown closed at both ends (this was the very first example we had seen with the design like this, and only the second example of this feature we have ever seen, i.e. see Plate 2.93, page 224, Tibetan Rugs Vol. 2 – Wangden (Molacek, 2024). This is not a repair or pile reweave, as can be determined by the two top and bottom close-up comparison photos – where the white dots show the exact same location top and bottom (bottom images right column). As can be seen there is no repair anywhere in those or the adjacent rows of weave in the carpet, the asymmetric red ladder design was intended to be like that.
This gives rise to the possibility of it being half of a longer runner that has been shortened and which had a ‘mirror image’ design on the other half; or maybe it was just a carpet of similar dimensions as is seen here. Made sometime in the 1800’s / 19th century, the construction is of fine hand-spun wool and yak hair with ‘frilly’ edges all around, all the dyes are natural and the size is 210cm x 97cm (including the fringe). What may appear to be a dirty or stained horizontal line across the center of the carpet is simply intermittent tufts of brown undyed wool that have been woven into the pile when it was made (see close-up of a small section of that area middle row, center photo). Overall it is in very good condition with no repairs or reweaves anywhere in the main body of the carpet.
*See similar examples of this type of carpet page 65, Drumze (Erhard & Wild, 2021); and almost identical Plate 2.93, page 224, Tibetan Rugs Vol. 2 – Wangden (Molacek, 2024).