Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, Alice S. Kandell Collection

The room features bright orange walls draped with colorful fabric valances and several vertical thangkas depicting deities in wrathful and peaceful forms. In the center, a highly ornate, multi-tiered wooden altar holds gilded Buddha figures and small metal ritual lamps, while a smaller pedestal to the left supports a statue of a winged deity enclosed in a glass case. The furniture, including cabinets and a smaller side table, is decorated with intricate polychrome floral and geometric motifs. In the foreground, a wooden railing separates the viewer from the sacred space, where offerings such as butter lamps and ritual texts are arranged.

This shrine room represents the synthesis of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist practice, combining iconography from the Gelug, Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya schools. It serves as a physical environment for tantric visualization and daily devotional ritual, centering on the cultivation of enlightenment and merit.