1
●The block is carved once, and never again
Each verso block is hand-cut from birch-hardwood and proofed a single morning; a stroke lost stays lost for the run of three hundred leaves.
2
●Ink that soot-blackens, then reddens the opening line
Soot-pigment lays the body; the first line of every chapter is re-inked in cinnabar vermillion, the rubric that names what is sacred.
3
●Paper that browns because it was never bleached
Daphne and Pennisetum fibres are pulled, sun-dried, pressed flat; the leaf keeps its tan warmth and a visible grain no mill can imitate.
4
●Three centuries, one unbroken workshop
Founded in 1729 at Kham, the Parkhang still pulls leaves by hand; the press has outlived its founders, its patrons, and four dynasties of weather.