The Folger is closing at 4:30pm on Sunday, February 23, for a staff training exercise. Normal hours will resume when the Folger opens on Tuesday, February 25, at 11:00am.
These Tibetan Buddhist recitation prayer texts were block-printed using inked letterforms and pressure—a practice that predates European printing by hundreds of years. The surface is paper, which was more common in Asia than Europe at the time. The individual sheets are connected end to end and folded like an accordian. This document was likely created in China during the early Ming period when close relations were established between Tibetan monks and the Chinese imperial court.
