The Thai Textile Society presents a lecture, "Tibetan Textiles", conducted by Alex Kerr at his residence at City Lake Tower, Sukhumvit 16, on Saturday at 10am.
A Tibetan textile that will be on display. (Photo courtesy of Thai Textile Society)
The Tibetan cultural sphere ran from Mongolia through Tibet down to Bhutan. Tibetan textiles cover a wide range, including robes, sacred textiles and rugs made of materials such as wool, cotton and silk woven on Tibetan looms.
Additionally, textiles were also often imported from China and India while other textiles were cut up and stitched together to be adapted for Tibetan uses.
Within the precincts of Tibetan temples, old fabrics that were lost in mainland China were often preserved.
Tibetan textiles display a distinctive world of colour and symbolism related to Tibetan tangka paintings -- a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk applique usually depicting a Buddhist deity or mandala.
This is also an opportunity to see alluring textiles from the private collection of the American writer and Japanologist who has collected East Asian art from Japan and Korea down to Thailand and Indonesia.
A long time resident of Kyoto, Japan and Bangkok, Alex Kerr wrote books on East Asian art and culture. He graduated from Yale University (Japanese Studies 1974) and Oxford University (Chinese Studies 1977).
The fee is 300 baht (200 baht for members of the Thai Textile Society). For reservation, email bkk.tts@gmail.com.
