Butter Sculpture Festival

The Butter Sculpture Festival (also known as the Butter Lamp Festival) is a holiday held at the monastery of Kumbum In Tibet on the evening of the 15th day of the New Year. It is part of the Monlam Chenmo prayer festival which takes place as part of the new year celebrations. The tradition goes back many centuries and in the monastery the differing teaching faculties often compete with each other in making the figures.

The largest and most elaborate works are often started in the ninth month of the previous year. The figures are often elaborate artistic masterpieces, some up to 30 feet in height, using large quantities of hardened yak butter applied over cleverly constructed internal frames containing joints and springs that allow them to move. The monks involved in making the sculptures often spend months on their creations, and the work is generally very detailed and carefully executed.

Traditionally, after all the figures are completed they are displayed on the fifteenth day of the first month in an enclosed area about 6 metres high and 13 metres wide, filled with an array of colourful and intricately fashioned images.

Each year a different theme is emphasised. The members of the classes responsible for creating the images decide what this is to be, and it is kept secret until the sculptures are made available for public display.

Popular themes include events from the stories of Sakyamuni's previous births, his twelve great deeds, Tibetan folk tales (overlaid with Buddhist symbolism and imagery), or important events in Tibetan religious history. Some of the displays consist of as many as twenty large butter figures, elaborately sculpted and carefully painted in vibrant colours. The colouring is made from natural dyes, often mixed with ash. In addition, the most important sculptures are sometimes decorated with pigments made from powdered gold and silver, as well as other precious substances.

The images commonly have boards for backing, but others are free-standing sculptures with internal supports. In some cases frames from the previous year are used, but most have to be newly constructed.

While making the sculptures, the artists keep two buckets in front of them, one containing hot water, and the other cold. Since the butter has to be kept cold to prevent melting, warm hands can damage the artist's work. In addition, sculptor's hands have to be kept clean, as dirty hands could stick to the figures or smudge them.

While working on the images, the monks first put their hands in the hot water to wash them, dip them in dry flour and rub their fingers together to remove dirt, and then rinse in hot water, and then dip in cold water again to cool the skin. This enables the artists to avoid melting or discolouring the images while shaping the butter, which is first moulded by hand and later smoothed and coloured.

In addition to religious scenes, the monks sculpt images depicting life in the monasteries, often including figures of the head monks. Many of these are caricatures, as this is a time when it is acceptable to gently poke fun at the senior officials of the monastery. If the head lama is old, for example, his figure might have a head with a spring at the neck, making his head bob up and down, symbolizing senility and feebleness. Other prominent physical features are exaggerated, although there are commonly recognized boundaries of good taste, and the monks are expected to remain within them.

In the displays of monastic life, the various figures are often movable. Monks manipulate their movements from behind the scenes by means of ropes and pulleys, using internal spring mechanisms which give the structures added mobility.

When all the preparations are complete, the sculptures are displayed in a specially constructed enclosure lit by butter lamps. The monks and lay people file through the area admiring the exquisitely sculpted images, knowing as they view them that all will be destroyed before dawn. This provides the audience with a graphic reminder of the Buddhist concept of impermanence, which teaches that all mundane human activities pass away, leaving nothing behind.

After the display, the buddhas and bodhisattvas who had earlier been invited to enter the figures were asked to leave (because it would be disrespectful to destroy the images if they were inhabited), and the monks quickly dismantle the sculptures. The frames are saved, but the sculptures are stacked up, their colouring is scraped off, and they are melted down. The end of the festival is marked by a ritual in which people through constructs called "sur" (zur) into a pit.

Sur are structures made of sticks in a pyramidal shape, connected with strong paper and decorated with images of fire, clouds, jewels and other symbols, all made from butter. On top of the sur is a skull, with flames coming out of its mouth. Ribbons and strings are tied to the top of the tripod. These are used to steady it while it is being moved. Inside the legs of the tripod is a torma, which is a painted sculpture made of butter and flour.

The sur is built as part of a ceremony to exorcise evil forces, which are lured into it by special rituals. After rituals are conducted to bring all the evil of the area into the sur, the structure is taken outside the grounds of the monastery and burned, thus creating a "clean slate" for the new year.

If you're looking for a way to commemorate this event, you might be interested in this article: Commemorations with Cross Stitch

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