Kora
An artists’ book by Clifton Meador

In the west of China, in what has historically been part of Tibet, is one of the great cultural treasures of Tibetan Buddhism. Situated in a high valley, at about 3300 meters, is a temple devoted to the preservation and printing of the Tibetan sutras, a printing temple that holds the greatest number (more than 300,000) of Tibetan woodblocks in the world. The Derge Parkhang* is frequently called the “Treasure house of Tibetan Culture.”

I traveled to the Derge Parkhang first in the Summer of 2006 and again in the summer of 2007. I went as part of an interdisciplinary research team** to understand traditional Tibetan book production as a living, ongoing endeavor, rather than a dying museum of obsolete technology. What we found was surprising and exciting: not only is book production from carved wooden blocks an ongoing enterprise, but the Parkhang is publishing new works using this ancient xylographic technology.

One of the most surprising and interesting things about the Parkhang for me was the reverence that the Tibetan have for it: it is, after all, just a printing plant and a place to store printing blocks, but pilgrims come from all over the Tibetan world to walk around it and pay respect to the books that are created there. I stood in front of the Parkhang and watched hundreds of people walk around and around the building as a way of honoring the contents. I saw people prostrating themselves in front of the building, crawling around the outside of the building, motivated by reverence and religious devotion.

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