Gannan Thangka: Inheriting in perseverance and developing in innovation
Tenzin students create thangka works
In the summer river on a winter afternoon, the outside of the house is warm and the sun is shining, and the house is quiet and busy. Tenzin, a 53-year-old thangka painter, sat in front of the easel, stroke by stroke, carefully coloring. In his pen, the color of the picture gradually enriched, and the image slowly became vivid. Painting like this for 8 hours a day, he almost never stopped over the years. From the time he picked up a paintbrush at the age of 10, Tenzing painted for more than 40 years. For thangka art, Tenzin has endless emotions...
On January 10th, the all-media interview team of Gansu Daily newspaper and Gansu Daily Newspaper Group "Taking the Grassroots in the New Year - Taking the Postal Road to See the New Bureau" came to Xiahe County, Gannan Prefecture, approached Tenzin, the non-hereditary inheritor of The thangka of the Gannan Tibetan Thangka, to feel the unique charm of The Thangka art in Gannan and understand the new changes in the inheritance and innovation of Thangka culture.
Tenzin, the non-hereditary heir of the Gannan Tibetan Thangka, is creating
Persistence: Strive for excellence and polishing skills
In 1979, at the age of 10, Tenzin began to study Thangka painting in Qinghai, and at the age of 20, he came to Xiahe Labrang Monastery to learn art.
"In the 10 years in Qinghai, I was more about studying scriptures, which is equivalent to learning the theoretical knowledge of Thangka, and after coming to Xiahe, I followed my teacher to refine painting, and my Thangka painting skills have been greatly improved." Tenzin summed up his thangka learning journey in this way. In his view, it is through the long-term study of theory and painting that he has a deeper understanding of the art of thangka, and also laid the foundation for the promotion of Gannan Thangka in the future.
After five years of studying in Xiahe, the 25-year-old Tenzin opened his own thangka studio at Labrang Monastery and began to take students.
"Originally, it was all order-based, tourists from all over the country came to Xiahe to travel, saw our thangka works, and placed orders if they liked it." At that time, Tenzin recalled, not many people knew about thangkas, even many young local people did not know about thangkas, and the sale of thangkas was limited to temples and tourists.
Nevertheless, Tenzin never gave up on his quest for thangka art. Composition, coloring and dyeing, line shaping, laying gold and silver... He strives for excellence at every step, often painting a work for months or even a year. In the day-to-day polishing, Tenzin gradually developed his own style.
Xiahe County Labrang Thangka Town Exhibition Hall
Inheritance: Gannan Thangka gradually "became popular"
"In 2008, gannan Tibetan thangka was selected into the national intangible cultural heritage list, which further highlighted the important position of Xiahe Thangka in thangka culture." Duan Xiyi, deputy director of the Xiahe County Cultural and Tourism Bureau, introduced that since then, Xiahe County has continuously increased its capital investment, actively strived for various intangible cultural heritage protection projects at all levels, and discovered and trained Gannan Tibetan Thangka inheritors. Up to now, Xiahe County has 3 national inheritors, 3 provincial inheritors, 6 state-level inheritors, and more than 30 county-level inheritors, and the team of inheritors is growing day by day.
Under the background of the strategy of culturally strong province, Thangka has gradually become the main starting point for the development of cultural industries in Xiahe County. In 2018, Xiahe County invested more than 3 million yuan to build a Labuleng Thangka Town with a construction area of more than 2,000 square meters in the Xiahe Conch Bay Tibetan Cultural Industry Park, which has attracted 12 Thangka studios and enterprises to settle in to carry out the inheritance, display and sales of Tibetan Thangka in Gannan Province.
In this way, Tenzin became one of the first painters to settle in thangka town, owning a studio of nearly 140 square meters, and the park also reduced his rent. Today, in the spacious and bright studio, Tenzin enjoys the creative process even more.
The completion of thangka town not only provides a good creative environment for painters, but also becomes an important window for locals and foreign tourists to understand thangka art. During the peak tourist season, many tourists will choose to go to thangka town for on-site experience after visiting Labrang Temple.
"Every year in June and July, the town receives up to 100 tourists a day." Tenzin said that tourists have deepened their understanding and love of thangka by completing a small thangka work by hand.
Relying on the town of Thangka, the local cultural and tourism departments have also increased the publicity and promotion of Thangka, and often organize painters to participate in exhibitions and promotions in other places. Tenzin has gone to Shanxi, Henan and other places to hold exhibitions and participate in exhibitions, and deeply feels people's love for Xiahe Thangka.
From "small fights" to "group battles", today, the popularity of Xiahe Thangka is getting higher and higher, and the atmosphere of young people learning to inherit thangka is also getting stronger.
Development: From "niche" to "popular"
In the pavilion of the small town of Labrang Thangka, nearly 100 thangka works from local painters are on display. Strolling through them, you will find that these Thangka works not only have common religious portraits, but also historical events such as the "Liangzhou Huimeng" and the production and life scenes of the current Gannan masses.
Duan Xiyi introduced that Tibetan thangkas are mainly religious themes and are known as "moving Buddhist halls", but Tibetan thangkas are not limited to religious themes, but also cover historical events, natural sciences and other content, so they are also known as the "encyclopedia" of Tibetan history.
Innovative thangka works
In recent years, in order to let more ordinary audiences accept and like thangkas and further expand the sales of thangkas, under the guidance of the government, thangka painters in Xiahe have begun to turn their attention to realistic themes and create a large number of thangka works that reflect local production and life, which are also known as "innovative thangkas".
"In 2021, we took 100 'Innovative Thangkas' to Inner Mongolia for exhibition and sale, which were very popular with local enthusiasts and exhibitors, and sold 74 works in 3 days." Duan Xiyi said excitedly that the "accident" popularity of innovative thangka proves that through the model of thangka town, while adhering to traditional creation, it is right to guide thangka art to take the road of innovative development.
"In Xiahe, inheriting and promoting thangka art and innovating and developing the thangka industry not only carries forward the national culture, but also plays an important role in driving employment and consolidating and expanding the results of poverty alleviation." Duan Xiyi introduced that in the case of Tenzin, for more than 20 years, he has brought out more than 80 students, many of whom have mastered a skill and improved family conditions, of which more than 20 students have opened studios in Gannan and Sichuan, Qinghai and other places.
According to statistics, at present, Xiahe County has nearly 600 Thangka practitioners and nearly 300 Thangka painters, creating more than 1,000 Thangka works every year, with an annual income of 20 million yuan. It is believed that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, with the landing of various cultural industry development plans, Gannan Thangka will also usher in new development.
Innovative thangka works. (Photo of this article: New Gansu Gansu Daily reporter Wei Dezhan)
Transferred from: New Gansu
Editor/Ma Xuejing Review/Tao Xiaoqi He Xiayan
Editor-in-Charge/Yuan Maorun General Review/Qi Zhengming
"Like" Xiahe attention "watching" the development of Xiahe