About the Artist
Seal Script History
The special Seal script called Phags-pa or horyig in Tibetan, was created at the time of the great Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan, who ruled during the 13th century, over China, Mongolia, Tibet, to the North into Russia and South to the borders of Burma and Vietnam.
The Emperor seeing that a uniformed script was needed across his vast kingdom, issued the standardisation of this script by the learned Phagpa Lodro Gyalsten, who devised the namely Phags-pa script. The use of Phags-pa was short lived as a universal written language, however its use lived on as a popular seal script in Tibet called horyig ཧོར་ཡིག this was developed as a ‘modern’ seal script style, which is not only easily translated from Tibetan, but also mimics the labyrinthine geomantic structure of popular Chinese seal script ideographs.
The seal script, which reads vertically, has a strong, commanding visual impression, which was not only traditionally used for official purposes, such as representing an organization, but also for personal use, such as an artist or to simply authenticate a signed letter or document.
The art of horyig seal design is almost none existent, less so are those who are skilled in hand-carving seals, called ‘chop’ in Chinese, which as an art form, has almost vanished across the far-East.
There are perhaps only a hand full of people in the world today who know the horyig seal script well enough to translate, let alone create and provide an attractive looking seal design, however none are known to hand-carve the actual chop seals.
To Commission a Seal Design
There are a number of elements to consider when a seal design is created. Seals with the use of Horyig script tend to be square or oblong in shape, unless a round shape to the seal is specified.
The vertical Horyig script is more than often quite lengthy in text when translated; therefore it is advised to keep words for a chop design to the minimum, using key words or titles.
Seals can be depicted in two categories, of yin and yang, in simple terms, Yin being more feminine and light, Yang more masculine and heavy.
The border of a seal is traditionally thick, as the design of the seal is carved incised into a square ended stone, this also gives the opportunity for more design or symbols incised within the border, such as the traditional sun and moon motif, which marks the top of the chop. For a Yin seal the border can be finer with the sun and moon sitting out side of the border.
After consultation with Tashi, an original artwork for the design of a personal seal is produced. Options for stone to an exact reduced reproduction of the design in the form of a rubber stamp.
The complete seal set includes the original A4 artwork, the seal or stamp and the seal mud or vermilion red ink used to make the seal impression.
If you are interested in commissioning your own personal seal, please follow the simple stages set out on the BESPOKE SEALS page.
If you would like to know more about Horyig and how to use a seal please visit Tashi’s blog
Example of an original manuscript showing the Horyig and Tibetan alphabet.
