Temple banner with Brahmanical deities and ascetics

This upper section of a temple banner is constructed of embroidered panels depicting Hindu deities assembled from a single source. It features images of Bhairava, a wrathful form of Shiva, together with multiple depictions of Vishnu and ascetics. The fine detailing is achieved with a minute brick-stitch outlined by chain-stitch and superimposed stars on the scarfs worn by each figure. The ensemble was likely derived from a ritual garment made in the Kathmandu Valley, almost certainly a court commission for use by a royal priest. It was subsequently repurposed as a part of banner, likely in Tibet. This is one of a small group of such Nepalese ritual textiles to have survived. This textile is dated, on the basis of radio-carbon analysis, to the early fifteenth century.