A Taste for the Exotic: The Textiles of Tibet and the Himalayas since the Age of the Tibetan Empire.

Despite notions of its isolation, even before the age of the Tibetan Empire (c. 7th-9th century CE), records speak of the wealth of textiles circulating on the Tibetan Plateau from distant lands. Early royal marriages to foreign princesses meant that religious and secular art objects from afar filled the Tibetan court in Lhasa, including silks and new styles of dress. Lhasa became a cosmopolitan city, its markets bursting with exotic goods, textiles and spices.

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Later political interactions, from those on ancient trade routes in Central Asia to those with the Mongol Khans, saw the formation of a distinct textile tradition, combining a wealth of material from outside within a Tibetan Buddhist context. This stretched beyond the plateau itself and into the Himalayan region. Here, untouched by the devastation of the so-called 'Cultural Revolution' inflicted on twentieth-century Tibet, exotic textiles were circulated, adapted and used by Tibetan Buddhists from Sogdiana, Persia and Kashmir to Western India, Mongolia, and China.

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This rich synthesis combined with distinct forms of Tibetan and Himalayan textiles, localised by each valley, forming arguably one of the most complex textile traditions on earth. This lecture draws on material dating up to the present day, including what I have seen while travelling on the Indo-Tibetan border in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, including textiles made today in remote villages.

Jordan Quill’s research focusses on artistic interactions between Tibet, India, and the Himalayas. After receiving his BA in the History of Art from The Courtauld Institute of Art, he completed an MPhil in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at the University of Oxford. There he researched Himalayan arts and studied the Tibetan language. He has worked in museums and galleries and is currently in the final year of his PhD at The Courtauld. Jordan has published and lectured on the arts of Tibet, the Himalayas, and India. In the Himalayan and Tibetan-speaking regions of India and Nepal he has developed his understanding of Tibetan arts and his fluency in the Tibetan language. He has also established professional relationships with artists and cultural institutions in exile in Dharamshala, India, where he has attended Buddhist teachings by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet.