Butter Sculptures Ceremony at Ta’er Lamasery

Ta’er Lamasery, Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province in China is one of the country’s leading Buddhist centres attracting Buddhists, both lay people and monks, from all over East Asia including the Tibetan, Mongolian and the Tu minority communities.

Butter Sculpture is famous across the Buddhist world, with one of the principal attractions in Tibet each year being the celebrations at the monastery in Kumbum at the time of the Lantern Festival, at the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

At the Ta’er Lamasery they hold four Butter Sculpture ceremonies each year:

14th and 15th of the First Month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar
14th & 15th of the Fourth Month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar
7th & 8th of the Sixth Month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar
23rd and 24th of the Ninth Month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar

In the Gregorian Calendar, these ceremonies usually fall in February, May/June, July and October/November each year.

Accompanying the Butter Sculptures on these occasions are huge painted depictions of the Buddha, ceremonial prayers and other activities associated with Buddhism as a whole.

Offerings moulded from butter, or butter sculptures, are central to spiritual development in Tibetan Buddhism. As a unique sculptural art in Tibetan culture, the art has its origin in Tibetan Bon religion and is considered one of the exotic flowers in the treasury of Tibetan art.

The origin of butter sculptures is well documented in Tibetan history. When Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty was married to the then Tibetan king, Songtsan Gambo in 641 CE, she brought along to her wedding ceremony a sculpture of Sakyamuni, which was later enshrined and worshipped at the Jokhang Temple.

The Tibetan people presented offerings in front of the Buddha. According to the traditional customs observed in India, offerings to Buddha and Bodhisattvas were divided into six categories: the flower, Tu incense, divine water, Wa incense, fruit, and the Buddha light. By the time of the wedding ceremony all of the flowers and trees in Tibet had died, so the people made a bunch of flowers from butter instead.

Butter sculptures are constructed mainly of Yak Butter, which is relatively soft and easily moulded and manipulated. Pure Yak Butter has a faint scent, and retains it shape when moulded, thus making it possible to create quite exquisite works of art, which are also decorated with vivid colours.

In the beginning, butter sculptures were simple and the techniques were naive and rough. Later, two training schools were set up in the Ta'er Monastery to train monks specialising in this art. With a passion for the Buddha and the arts, the monks worked hard and learned from each other to overcome their own weaknesses, thus enriching the art in terms of pattern and content.

The making of butter sculptures is a rather unique art with complex requirements, as butter melts easily. As it is modelled by hand, conditions need to be cold, so it is usually done on Winter days, or in naturally cool climates.

To make the butter more smooth and delicate, it is soaked in cold water for a long time to remove impure substances; then it is kneaded into the texture of a paste.

Monks who are butter artists wash and take part in a religious ritual before commencing their work and (because each festival has its own theme) they begin to discuss the butter sculptures they are to produce. After agreeing the theme, they elaborate collectively on the concepts, planning and layout of the sculptures. During this planning process, the work is allocated to individual monks. When all of the preparatory work is complete, the artists enter rooms at or about freezing point and begin their work.

The first act is to build a basic frame for the butter sculpture. This is done using simple materials such as hollow tubing, canes, wire, pieces of wood, soft leather, hemp rope and pieces of cloth. Some of the human structures, although made from basic materials, are quite intricate in their construction, with articulated limbs and moving parts.

The initial part of the modelling process involves a black mixture made from the used butter of previous sculptures mixed with the ashes from burned wheat straw. This is used to construct the basic shapes on the frame (this process has much in common with building the basic structure when sculpting with clay). The body is then examined and any adjustments made before the sculpting proper begins.

The second raw material used to cover the basic structure, is a mixture made from creamy yak butter and one or more coloured minerals. These are brush painted onto the surface of the sculpture, and then gold and silver coloured powder is used to draw the outline of the sculpture.

If the scultures are small and inanimate they are usually fixed to slates, boards or special bases. Larger structures may require quite substantial frames, especially if they are to be moved.

One of the most common and simpler structures is the depiction of the floral tributes in the original story of Princess Wencheng. The layout can be a simple flower image or the depiction of a story called "The Frame of Butter Flowers". Butter Sculptures also cover many other subjects, including themes centred on Buddhism, historic stories, personal biographies, birds and beasts.

The trends of modern times have begun to influence their content, for example, with the butter sculpture "The Story About Sakyamuni" not only following traditional styles, but also reflecting real life. The former tradition of single, individual sculptures has evolved into the use of several sculptures and reliefs to create whole scenes and stories in one elaborate construction.

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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