Taersi Butter Sculpture
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Butter Sculpture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Ta'er Monastery is located in Lianhua Mountain, south of Lusha'er Town, where the seat of Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province, lies, 25 km from Xining; it is a first-batch National Key Cultural Relic under Protection announced by the State Council. The main current inheritors of the Ta'er Monastery butter sculpture craft include Zhaxi Nima, Luozang Longzhu, Gazang Jiacuo, Jiayang Xiere, and Zhihua Ruozi. Gazang Jiancuo (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): He became a monk in 1958 and studied butter sculpture production in the Upper Flower Courtyard of Ta'er Monastery. Under the guidance of the senior artist-monks Xire Nima, Zhaxi Nima, and others, he mastered the butter sculpture craft, became a backbone of butter sculpture production at Ta'er Monastery, and served many times as artistic director of the butter sculpture courtyard. He excels in designing and modeling figures, rendering facial expressions, and matching colors. The figures he models are well proportioned, evenly colored, lifelike, and natural and vivid in expression. He took part in the production and exhibition of Ta'er Monastery's annual Lantern Festival butter sculpture, and was invited to produce and exhibit butter sculpture at the Beijing Nationalities Cultural Palace, the Shenzhen International Exhibition Center, and elsewhere. Male, Tibetan ethnicity, born in September 1942 and deceased in January 2020, from Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province. Representative inheritor of Ta'er Monastery Butter Sculpture, a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item. Luozang Angxiu (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Tibetan ethnicity, born in October 1962, from Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province. In 1980 he entered the Lower Flower Courtyard of Ta'er Monastery, where he studied the sutra and treatise works needed for butter sculpture production—such as the Sutra of Iconographic Proportions, Methods of Scroll Painting, History of Painting by the Wise, and Forms and Proportions—and practiced the craft. Thereafter he continually took part in the creation and exhibition of Ta'er Monastery's annual Lantern Festival butter sculpture works and served many times as rule-holder (zhangchi) and artistic director of butter sculpture production at the monastery. After 1991 he took part in butter sculpture production and exhibitions at the Beijing Nationalities Cultural Palace, the Shenzhen International Exhibition Center, and other venues. Beginning in 1998 he taught the basic techniques of butter sculpture production to fourteen new artist-monks, and after 2000 he taught them the techniques of base-body making, modeling, and gilding. Representative inheritor of Ta'er Monastery Butter Sculpture, a fourth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gacangjiancuo 03-1255
- Luocangangxiu 04-1792
- Shengge 05-2629
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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