Charm of Ta'er Temple (3)

18:06, July 04, 2009  

On the square of the Ta'er Temple, eight Buddha Pagodas are standing tall and upright, which are tidy and pleasing to the eye. Built in the 41styear (1766) of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, they were arranged in one row to eulogize the eight good deeds and merits of Sakyamuni in his life.

There are three famous arts called as three uniques in the Ta'er Temple, namely butter sculptures, frescos and barbolas. Butter sculptures are made of butters displaying various figures of Buddha, figures, birds and beasts, trees and flowers, elaborate Chinese architectures, religious stories and myths and others. They are vivid and lifelike with skillful handcrafts. Butter sculptures have a long history. It is said that in the 15thyear (641) of the Zhenguan reign in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when Princess Wencheng of Tang married to Songtsan Gambo of Tubo, she brought a statue of Sakyamuni from the capital Chang'an. In order to express their respect, the disciples presented a bundle of butter sculptures in front of the statue of Buddha. Since then, it has become a custom of the Tibetan people. Butter sculptures were spread to the Ta'er Temple. The artist monks in the temple studied very hard and further developed this art on the subject and technology, thus it became a unique and excellent butter sculpturing art possessed by the Ta'er Temple.

Frescos can be founded on the walls of each hall. Most of them were painted on the curtains, while some of them were painted directly on the walls or the ridge beams. The dyes for the frescos are lithoid minerals, bright and unfading.

Photo shows the green grass carpeted field around the Ta'er Temple, northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua Photo)

Barbola was uniquely created by the Ta'er Temple and is one of the Tibetan arts. Silk with various colors is cut into different shapes as intended, such as figures of Buddha, figures, flowers, birds, beasts and etc. Then they are filled with wool and cotton and embroidered to the curtains. Because the middle part is protruding, it has three-dimensional appeal. The contents of barbola are mostly about Buddhist stories, religious life and others.

There are four important Buddhist meetings (meeting to read classics) held in the Ta'er Temple, respectively in each lunar January, April, June and September. During the period, there are religious activities such as the sorcerer's dance in trance (Master dance), bathing the Great Buddha in the sun (to show the respect), and displaying butter sculptures, etc.　

Source: chinaculture.org
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