Large Antique Old Chinese white Jade Inlaid Ancient Jade Book Chinese Tibet Primary Material : Jade and Silk contains eight Jade plaques/panels with SIXTEEN carvings Buddhist texts. Rare/different in the sense that you come across these books with six plaques. Age : ca-1800 Region of Origin : China Original/Reproduction.
 
Reproduced from the Original gift given to the Emperor. (see history below) Meaurements: 9.00 inches x 6.00 inches and is 2.25 inches thick
 
This book records a Buddhist text given to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–95) by a Panchen Lama from Tibet. The calligraphy was written by the court official Liang Guozhi (1723–1774) then engraved into the jade pages and painted gold. A number of jade books were made during the reign of Qianlong and thereafter, whose penchant for this stone and partiality to all sorts of extravagances is well recorded. 
 
A little History:
The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 1711 – 7 February 1799) Since the earliest antiquity, jade enjoys special consideration in China. They (jade artifacts)were insignia of the supreme power, scepters or sacrificial vessels, and was used in the funeral rites to protect the bodies from putrefaction. For the Confucians it is the symbol of the five cardinal virtues: goodness, righteousness, wisdom, courage and purity while the Taoists consume it reduced to powder to try to attain immortality. Whether it comes from the West (from Khotan or Yarkand for the nephrites used in ancient times) or from nearby countries (for the green jadeite from the 18th century), it was a product imported at great price or Offered in tribute to the emperor by vassal kingdoms.