Auspicious Carpets: A Tibetan View of Aesthetics

Fig. 7: Tibetan Coin Medallion
saddle top
42 x 63
Cotton warp, wool weft

At first glance this looks like thousands of other medallion carpets Tibetans picked up from the Khotanese tradition, which were perhaps considered seats of the Buddha (see Bidder, 1964). The use of geometrics and color transforms this into a purely Tibetan conception. The colors are exactly the same on the front and back, even with the hard use of a saddle carpet. The use of color and the checkerboard corners show simplicity and sophistication.