Gacangjiancuo

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Gacangjiancuo, Male, Unspecified, from Huangzhong, Qinghai, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Taersi Butter Sculpture (Ⅶ-48). The tradition is documented in Huangzhong, Qinghai. Within the regional tradition and school record of Taersi Butter Sculpture in Huangzhong, Qinghai: Ta'er Monastery butter sculpture is produced through the division of labor between the monastery's Upper and Lower Flower Courtyards, each with about twenty artist-monks and each headed by a 'zhangchi' (rule-holder) director who decides the year's subject matter, composition, and division of production; the artist-monks generally enter the courtyard at fifteen or sixteen and practice for life, and the craft is transmitted mainly through oral and manual instruction and from master to apprentice. Another legend holds that in 641, when Princess Wencheng entered Tibet, she brought a statue of Shakyamuni at the age of twelve and had it enshrined in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. The Tubo people made flowers of butter as offerings before the Buddha as a sign of reverence; Tibetan Buddhist monasteries subsequently adopted the practice in turn, regarding butter flowers as precious offerings to the Buddha, and the presentation of butter sculpture became an important part of the Great Prayer Festival of the first lunar month. Thereafter butter sculpture spread to Ta'er Monastery, the birthplace of Master Tsongkhapa, where it became an established custom. After the religious reforms of 1958, religious activities in Tibetan areas ceased and monks were expelled from their monasteries. By the time butter sculpture production was restored in the 1980s, most of the famous artist-monks had died one after another.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He became a monk in 1958 and studied butter sculpture at the Shanghua College of Ta'er Monastery. Under the guidance of the elder monk-artists Xire Nima, Zhaxi Nima and others, he mastered the techniques of butter sculpture and became a mainstay of its production at Ta'er Monastery, serving several times as artistic director of the butter sculpture college. He excels at designing and modelling figures, at portraying facial expressions and at coordinating colour. The figures he models are well proportioned, evenly coloured, lifelike and natural in expression. He took part in the annual Lantern Festival butter sculpture production and exhibition at Ta'er Monastery, and was invited to make and exhibit butter sculpture at the Beijing Cultural Palace of Nationalities and the Shenzhen International Exhibition Centre. Within the documented technical tradition of Taersi Butter Sculpture in Huangzhong, Qinghai: In Tibetan the monastery is called 'Gunben Xianbalin', meaning 'a Maitreya island of one hundred thousand Buddha bodies', shortened to 'Gunben'; in Chinese it is called Ta'er Monastery. Butter sculpture is a special technique of molding forms and images out of butter (ghee); it is one of the 'Three Wonders of Ta'er Monastery' (butter sculpture, murals, and piled embroidery). Butter sculpture first arose in the Bon religion of Tibet, where it took the form of small applied flowers on food offerings. In the course of its development, the modeling methods, varieties, subjects, and technical skills of butter sculpture have continually changed. In 1409, when Master Tsongkhapa first held the Great Prayer Festival at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, large three-dimensional butter sculpture groups of figures were produced as offerings before the Buddha. Every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, as the bright moon rises and the lanterns are first lit, Ta'er Monastery welcomes its annual Butter Sculpture Lantern Festival; people make the flowers and admire them, praying for auspiciousness and peace, as they have without interruption for several hundred years. The production of butter sculpture is divided into six process steps: building the armature, making the base body, applying the modeling material, gilding and shaping, mounting on the tray, and consecration. The large butter sculptures of the monastery are mainly on religious themes (such as 'Tales of Shakyamuni's Previous Lives', 'The Twelve Deeds of Shakyamuni', 'Tales of Padmasambhava's Life', and 'Tales of Tsongkhapa's Life'; all images of the Buddha must observe the requirements of the 'thirty-two marks'), and they also take in Tibetan opera, legends, and historical figures (such as 'Princess Wencheng Enters Tibet'); there are also some distinctive small butter sculptures. The raw material for butter sculpture is highly particular: leftover butter taken down after the previous year's sculptures must be blended with fine wood ash to make a tough black base material before the body can be modeled. The temperature requirements during modeling are high, and the work is difficult. Taken as a whole, a single butter sculpture display comprises dozens of pavilions and towers, with figures and animals often numbering in the hundreds; everything is represented, from one- to two-meter bodhisattvas and vajra guardians down to flowers, birds, fish, and insects only a few dozen millimeters in size. Relief and round carving are combined, figures with scenery, the Buddha realm with the mortal world, motion with stillness; time and space are divided yet unbroken, the profusion of images is complex but not confused, the colors are brilliant, and the whole is integrated—an awe-inspiring sight. When butter sculptures are on display, a small ensemble of more than ten musicians provides accompaniment. Ta'er Monastery has two institutions dedicated to butter sculpture production, the 'Upper Flower Courtyard' and the 'Lower Flower Courtyard', each with about twenty artist-monks. These artist-monks generally enter the courtyard at fifteen or sixteen and practice the art for life. The craft of butter sculpture is transmitted mainly through oral and manual instruction and from master to apprentice. The Upper and Lower Flower Courtyards are each headed by a director (called the 'zhangchi', or rule-holder), who decides the year's subject matter, composition, and division of production labor. Butter sculpture works deform very easily and cannot be preserved for long, which makes it difficult for the traditional craft to have fixed models in transmission; protection of the butter sculpture craft should be further strengthened so that this distinctive ethnic handicraft can long endure in the world. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Records of Process Steps": The production of butter sculpture is divided into six process steps: building the armature, making the base body, applying the modeling material, gilding and shaping, mounting on the tray, and consecration.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in September 1942 and deceased in January 2020, a native of Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province. He was a representative bearer of Ta'er Monastery Butter Sculpture, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Gacangjiancuo · National Representative Bearer Archive