Butter Sculpture
01 · Historical Records
In a Water year of the eighth Rabjung cycle of the Tibetan calendar — 1463 CE — when Cudun Langkaba of Duilung presided as khenpo of Jampaling Monastery, the practice of modeling butter sculptures as offerings for the Miracles Prayer Festival began to flourish. By 1640, thirty-seven prayer-offering butter sculptures were modeled and offered each year. After 1640, for various reasons, the number of prayer-offering butter sculptures modeled and offered each year fell to twenty-three. In 1982, Jampaling Monastery was repaired and expanded.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Butter sculpture is a special technique using butter (yak butter) as its material: during production, various mineral pigments are mixed into the pure white, fine butter, which is then shaped into various forms and combined into themed artworks full of auspiciousness and joy. Butter sculpture is a folk sculptural art unique to the Tibetan people, and the butter sculpture of Jampaling Monastery in Chamdo is one of its examples. Butter sculpture originated as small applied flowers on food offerings in the Bon religion of Tibet. According to traditional Indian Buddhist custom, offerings to the Buddha and bodhisattvas are of six kinds (flowers, scented pastes, holy water, incense, fruit, and butter lamps); but at that time the weather was cold and the grass withered, with no fresh flowers to be had, so flowers were molded from butter to offer to the Buddha, and from this an artistic tradition was formed. The following year, on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, three prayer-offering butter sculptures were modeled and offered, formally restoring the tradition of the Miracles Prayer Festival. Thereafter, every year beginning on the third day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, the 21-day Great Miracles Dharma Assembly is held. During this period, the scripture halls, centered on the main assembly hall, are furnished with complete offerings, and more than a thousand monks gather to recite the Sutra of the Sixteen Arhats aloud in unison. On the fifteenth day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, five prayer-offering butter sculptures — brilliant in color, vying with the sun, and uniting form and spirit — are displayed and offered at the front of the main hall and to its left and right.
The great miracle festival
From the third day of the first Tibetan month the monastery holds a twenty-one day festival with a thousand monks reciting the sutra of the sixteen elders.
The changing number of offerings
Annual offerings of thirty-seven figures fell to twenty-three after 1640, then three were offered the next year, restoring the festival; five are shown today.
The beginnings in 1463
In 1463, while Tsultrim Namkha Bawa was abbot, butter-flower offerings began at the monastery and became customary; the temple was repaired after 1982.
Mineral pigments in butter
Mineral pigments are blended into fine white butter and modelled into auspicious tableaux, a practice rooted in Bon offerings and the scarcity of winter flowers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The butter sculpture of Jampaling Monastery is produced and offered by the monastery's monks according to the rituals of the prayer festival. According to monastery records, in a Water year of the eighth Rabjung cycle of the Tibetan calendar — 1463 CE — when Cudun Langkaba of Duilung presided as khenpo of Jampaling Monastery, the modeling and offering of prayer-offering butter sculptures began to flourish; by 1640 thirty-seven were modeled and offered each year, afterward reduced to twenty-three; after the monastery was repaired and expanded in 1982, the old practice was restored. Beginning on the third day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, the 21-day Great Miracles Dharma Assembly is held, with monks reciting the Sutra of the Sixteen Arhats, and on the fifteenth day of the first month five prayer-offering butter sculptures are displayed and offered at the front of the main hall and to its left and right.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Taersi Butter Sculpture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Because butter-sculpture works deform extremely easily and cannot be preserved for the long term, the traditional butter-sculpture technique cannot readily acquire fixed models in its transmission, and protection of the butter-sculpture craft should be further strengthened.
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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