LYNN LEVENBERG
TIBETAN WOMEN’S JEWELRY
2019
Lynn Levenberg, President of Lynn Levenberg Ltd., an Asian antiques firm in New York, specializes in Tibetan, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Ladakhi and Mongolian jewelry. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English literature from Columbia University. From 1991 to 2014, she selected, extensively researched and wrote detailed descriptions of each of the 1,280 pieces in the large Barbara and David Kipper jewelry collec tion, which contains the finest Tibetan jewelry in the world. It also includes many pieces from India, Indonesia, China, Chinese Minority areas, Buryatia, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East. Over 400 objects of this group were donated to the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014, 290 of which can be seen in their book, Vanishing Beauty: Asian Jewelry and Ritual Objects from the Barbara and David Kipper Collection, Yale University Press, 2016. The largest section of this important reposi tory of jewelry is Buddhist and contains 450 relic (Gau) boxes and 27 rare Tibetan Mooneater ornaments. The most important treasure, a circa 1200 Nepalese jeweled ritual crown, was donated in 2016 to the Metro politan Museum of Art in New York. Lynn edited A World of Bracelets, the Ghysels collection, Skira Editore, Milan, 2002, and Costumes and Jewellery of Tibet, Namgyal Lhamo Taklha, the Tibet Museum, Dharamsala, 2018. Mrs. Taklha’s late husband, Lobsang Samten Taklha, was the 14th Dalai Lama’s next older brother. Lynn’s thirty years of research on Buddhist jewelry have made her the most knowledgeable expert in this field. © Lynn Levenberg, 2025. Email: tibetanwomensjewelry@gmail.com
ISBN 978-3-89790-727-0
9 783897 907270
TWJ_DUSTJACKET_251125_PRINT.indd
1
LYNN LEVENBERG
arnoldsche
TIBETAN WOMEN’S JEWELRY arnoldsche
Tibetan Women’s Jewelry is a fully illustrated art book that describes the ground-breaking social and religious history of Central Tibet told through jewelry and trade from the 17th century of the 5th Dalai Lama through the 14th Dalai Lama’s exile to India in 1959. It has never previously been noted that Lhasa jewelry styles changed significantly with each Dalai Lama. This is shown in hundreds of chronologically arranged historic photo graphs of women wearing jewelry, which allows pieces to be very accurately dated. The book includes comprehensive sections on ten distinctive styles of women’s relic (Gau) boxes, various types of headdresses, ear pendants, shoulder chatelaines and waist ornaments as well as robes, scarves and aprons. Among the great strengths of this innovative study are the author’s many personal interviews with the last living Lhasa noblewomen, who have given her descriptions of how, where on the body and on what specific occasions their beautiful decorations were worn along with their own honorific Tibetan names. These important aristocrats also revealed their own fascinating personal biographies and are seen in many never pub lished family photos wearing their high-rank jewelry. This exclusive group includes the Tsarong, Taring, Surkhang, Yuthok, Phünkhang, Ragashar, Kashopa, Doring, Samdup Phodrang, Langdun, Ngapö, Ringang, Phala and Sakya families as well as famous religious figures. Most books on Tibet have included pictures of many of these important people without identifying them at all or using incorrect names. The author, however, painstakingly researched this, learned their proper names and titles and added their complicated genealogies. In-depth interviews with members of all these noble families brings them to life. The most heart-wrenching descriptions in the book are of what happened to the ones who were unfortunately left behind in Lhasa in 1959. The last Lhasa master goldsmiths were also contacted and provided their original names for the ornaments and priceless descriptions about how they were fabricated. This is the definitive scholarly book on traditional, pre-1959, Tibetan jewelry, because all but two of the nobles who wore it and all the highly skilled artisans who provided such invaluable new data are now gone. It was extremely lucky that the author found them in time or all their precious details would have been lost forever. Since Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950 and took it over com pletely in 1959, art historians have often marked Tibetan jewelry with the reign dates of Chinese emperors even though it was not Chinese. Lynn Levenberg has instead labeled all the Tibetan pieces in this book with Dalai Lama reign dates, setting an important precedent for all Tibetan collectibles. Tibetan Women’s Jewelry also traces the history of specific pieces of jewelry to show how the Red Chinese confiscation of jewelry and religious artifacts affected precious family possessions. Most of the high aristocratic jewelry has been sold over the years to support nobles in exile or because it went out of style and was no longer worn. Tracing the his tory of such pieces is, therefore, very important historical information. The author’s purpose in writing Tibetan Women’s Jewelry after thirty years of arduous research, was to document the heritage of these beautiful ornaments and to educate Tibetans in exile about their own rich heritage. This book is the first of a two-part set and will soon be followed by Tibetan Men’s Jewelry.
25.11.25
14:53