On the next page is a maze pattern from Tibet, which I came across in a magazine, pictured on a tapestry curtain in a monastery near Mt. Everest, in Nepal. The actual design is the one in the top left corner.

You probably recognise the design:iIt is quite a common oriental pattern. I noticed it in Chinatown here in Vancouver, on the doorway to a store. On asking inside about it, I was told that it was “just” a symbol or decoration. 

Doubtless there are many variations, but this particular one is intriguing because it has a path that branches in a way that reminds me very much of traditional Irish maze pattern, except that the Irish pattern is usually a continuous pathway, whereas in  the Oriental version, the thick and thin lines suggest the path has been coloured-in to create a contrast. 

On redrawing the line of the motif, sure enough, it becomes a continuous pathway: the dotted line shows how it was divided to allow colouring-in.