In one of my previous B&W post, I shared the slack and white version of the ancient Tibetan Skull. Now I present to you the colored version.

Description of Photo

This 17th century Tibetan skull is one of the rare Tibetan art pieces on earth. The Tibetans are known for their devout to Kabbala Buddhism and this skull is used as part of ceremonial practices in the ancient days. The mystery on this masterpiece lies at the skills of people during that time to draw and paint such fine details on curved surfaces. A treasure for collectors of Tibetan art, this Kabbala inspired masterpiece was valued at 500,000 Chinese Yuan (about 83,000USD).

Personal thoughts

To be honest, I am not a huge fan of such art. I usually like oil painting but this art piece is not really my kind collection that I would like to obtain. It looks really eerie and the history behind it is somewhat spooky. Mind you, that skull is real. And it is used for ceremonial functions in the temples, so imagine all the black magic in it.
However, it's really amazing to see how intricate the drawings are, and how did they draw and paint on such surface? I'm very sure it requires high concentration and skills to draw on a concave sphere. The art is simply incredible and hard to imagine how they did it.

照片描述

嘎巴拉碗是用人椭圆形的颅骨上半部制成 ，作为藏传佛教中一种非常具有代表性的标志与祭法器。这套嘎巴拉祭器的绘画风格是17世纪开始流行的新勉唐画派。最让人觉得神秘也是当时候的艺术家是怎么画上这凹内面。许多佛像收藏与爱好者开始注意唐卡。随着佛像艺术品市场行情的看涨以及西藏热的逐渐升温。这套嘎巴拉碗的价值大约50万人民币。

Behold, the colored version of the skull