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The Depository documents 13 techniques in Tibet; by risk level: 10 critically endangered, 3 endangered. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
Tibetan khaden (ཁ་དེན) carpets are among the most technically distinctive in the world because of the rod pile technique — unique to Tibet among all carpet-weaving traditions.
The Tibetan pabu (པ་བུ) are the traditional felt boots worn across the Tibetan plateau in conditions ranging from monastery courtyards to high-altitude herding — the primary footwear of the world's highest inhabited region (4,000-5,000m).
Thangka painting is the sacred Buddhist icon painting tradition of Tibet, executed in mineral and precious stone pigments on sized cotton or silk, mounted on silk brocade, and used as portable devotional objects in Buddhist practice.
Sertog (གསེར་གཏོགས — 'gold-touching') is the Tibetan tradition of casting Buddhist deity figures in bronze using the lost-wax process and then fire-gilding the surface with mercury amalgam — the same amalgam gilding documented in Nepal's…
The bumpa (བུམ་པ) is the ritual offering vessel used in virtually every Tibetan Buddhist ceremony — a vase-form copper or silver vessel filled with consecrated water and often capped with a peacock feather or precious stone stopper.
Tibetan butter sculpture (མར་གཟུགས — Mar Gyus, 'butter form') is the tradition of sculpting yak butter mixed with tsampa barley flour into elaborate ritual offering forms placed on monastery altars.
Gtor-ma (གཏོར་མ) are the geometric ritual dough forms placed on Tibetan Buddhist altars — distinct from the larger figurative butter sculptures (CRAFT-0615) in being smaller, more precisely geometric, and more directly tied to specific…
Tibetan cham (འཆམ) masks are the ritual performance masks of Tibetan Buddhist monastery dance — related to but distinct from the Mongolian tsam (CRAFT-0612) in using a papier-mâché and lacquer construction rather than the Mongolian…
Tibetan pö sang (སྤོས་བསང) is the tradition of preparing the aromatic incense blends used in Buddhist ritual smoke offerings (sang), daily monastery burning, and traditional Tibetan medicine.
Göku (གོས་སྐུ — 'cloth deity') is the Tibetan tradition of producing large-format Buddhist compositions in silk appliqué — cutting silk brocade and satin into figure shapes and assembling them on a fabric ground, rather than painting.
The Menri (མེན་རི) school is the canonical Lhasa court thangka painting tradition — the most systematized of Tibet's painting lineages, codified by Menthangpa Menla Dhondup in the 15th century and maintained as the official style of the…
The lhamo (ལྷ་མོ) is the specific clay vessel used in traditional Tibetan medicine (Sowa Rigpa) for preparing medicinal decoctions — the vessel form, clay composition, and firing method are all specified in Tibetan medical texts because…
Tibetan woodblock printing of texts by a two-person hand method: one person inks the carved block, the other applies the paper and rubs.