Butter sculptures (Qiangba Ling Monastery butter sculptures)
Butter sculpture is a special art that uses butter (butter) as the material. When making it, various mineral pigments are added to the white and delicate butter, and then various shapes are made to form a theme art full of auspiciousness and joy. Butter sculpture is a unique folk sculpture art of the Tibetan people. The butter sculpture of Qamdo Qamdo Qamdo is one of them. Butter sculpture was originally a small sticker on the food offerings of the Tibetan Bon religion. According to the traditional Buddhist customs of India, the offerings to Buddha and Bodhisattva have six colors (flowers, perfume, holy water, incense, fruits and Buddha lamps). However, at that time, the weather was cold and the grass was dry and there were no fresh flowers, so they had to use butter to make flowers to offer to the Buddha, thus forming an artistic tradition. - In the eighth year of the Circumambulation, that is, in 1463 AD, when the Doilung people Tsudon Langkabawa presided over the Qamdo Khampo of Qamdo Qamdo Khamdo, the creation of butter sculptures for the divine transformation ceremony began. By 1640, 37 prayer butter sculptures were made every year. After 1640, due to various reasons, the number of prayer butter sculptures made every year decreased to 23. In 1982, the Jampa Ling Monastery was renovated and expanded. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the following year, three prayer butter sculptures were made and offered, and the tradition of the Miraculous Transformation Ceremony was officially restored. Since then, a 21-day Miraculous Transformation Ceremony has been held on the third day of the first lunar month every year. During this period, the various scripture halls, mainly the Dharma Assembly Hall, offer complete offerings, and more than a thousand monks gather to recite the "Sixteen Arhats Sutra" in unison. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, five prayer butter sculptures with colorful and vivid colors were displayed in front of and on the left and right of the hall. Because butter sculptures are extremely easy to deform and cannot be preserved for a long time, it is not easy to obtain a fixed model for the traditional butter sculpture technique in the process of inheritance, and the protection of butter sculpture making techniques should be further strengthened. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)