In the golden autumn of 2022, at the Perras Gallery in Boston, USA, the solo exhibition of Niangben, a master of Chinese arts and crafts, a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage protection project "Regong Art", and a master of thangka art, opened his friend Lang Lang, an international piano master, with three pieces "Autumn Moon on the Peaceful Lake", "Jasmine" and "Goldberg Variations" echoing Niangben's works, a double feast of vision and hearing, attracting friends from all walks of life from all over the world.
Daughter Books
In recent years, through the exhibition of excellent works, Niangben has not only strengthened cultural exchanges in various places, but also further explored the cultural and artistic value of Regong Thangka, which has played a positive role in inheriting and protecting the achievements of excellent national traditional culture. Niangben said, "My greatest wish is to protect, inherit and carry forward the intangible cultural heritage of Regong art, cultivate more Regong Thangka art talents, promote the development of Thangka art, and let Regong art integrate into the people, into the contemporary, go abroad and go to the world." ”
Tempered in tribulation, sought in travel
If you look closely at Niangben's thangka works, you will find that his paintings are rigorously structured, rich in traditional regulations, bright and soft colors, subtle and elegant, free and easy brushwork, characters depicted in both form and spirit, and the decoration is fine and beautiful but solemn and elegant. Some of the paintings are serene and quiet, while others are majestic and agitated, and they are magnificent.
Behind the unique aesthetics and skills of Niangben's works is his continuous exploration, progress and sublimation on the road of thangka art for decades.
Niangben was born in 1971 in Wutun Village, Longwu Town, Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Wutun Village has a long tradition of painting thangka art, and enjoys the reputation of "every household has a painter and everyone can paint" in Qinghai Province.
Niangben was born in a poor family, he was the eldest of his sons, and 4 older sisters, in order to reduce the burden on the family, he was 12 years old with the same village master Xia Wu Cailet to learn to draw thangka. Master Xia Wucai later became the first artist in Tibetan history to win the title of "Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts".
Under the guidance of the master, the young mother traced the patterns one by one every day, and sat on the ground for several hours.
"Priming, carbon drawing, composition, grinding paint, coloring...... Master is very strict, and it is very boring and tiring to sit in the temple every day and draw thangkas motionless!"
At the age of 15, he secretly escaped from the temple. After a crowd of people waited for him, he was found and sent home. His father asked him, "You don't want to draw thangkas, so what do you want to do, and what do you want to do in the future?"
"You can do anything, you just don't want to draw thangkas!"
"Okay, then you go and do something else. There's a job in a brick factory, you go. ”
"Finally, I don't have to sit and paint all day!" said his mother, who was so happy that she went to a local brick factory to work as a brick porter.
"After a long day of hard work, exhausted, I could only earn three dollars. ”
A month of extremely difficult part-time work experience, with reality to give the mother an unforgettable lesson. Since then, Niangben has calmed down, listened to the teacher's teachings, learned to paint steadily, and never thought of giving up again.
Shuttling back and forth in the world of lines and colors, from ignorance to epiphany, and then to the dazzling presentation of gorgeous and delicate thangka works, the young Niangben became more and more immersed in thangka art, and her painting skills gradually improved. At the age of 18, he began to paint independently with the permission of his master, and at the age of 20, he began to lead his apprentices independently.
In 1996, Niangben took several apprentices to Sichuan to paint, met Mr. Luo Jiakuan, a national first-class artist, and worshipped him as a teacher, and studied the traditional Han Gongbi painting art in Chengdu for two years. The teacher admired Niangben's hard work and intelligence, and recommended him to start a business in Tibet.
"Regong was not famous before, and few people knew that there were artists who could paint thangkas in Regong, and Tibet is the birthplace of Tibetan culture, so my teacher suggested that I go to Tibet to develop. Niangben said.
In the winter of 1998, Niangben went to Tibet. I rented a shop on Bajiao Street in Lhasa, and the first thing I did when I opened it was to pick up a pen and draw a thangka work and hang it in my small shop as a door.
"After many people saw that thangka, they liked it very much and began to customize the work with me", because of this thangka work, the shop gradually gained some business from temples and markets. Gradually, Regong Thangka became well-known in the local area, and the thangka paintings undertaken by Niangben became more and more day by day.
Since 2003, he has been shuttling between Tibet and Regong and has the idea of returning to his hometown. He said: "Although the market in Tibet is good, my roots are in Regong. In the summer of 2006, he decided to return to Regong, where he was born and raised.
At that time, after experiencing Sichuan and Tibet all the way to explore, Niangben absorbed the strengths of each family, on the basis of the traditional style of Regong art, learned from the "Dunhuang Feitian" in the master's works of his teacher Xia Wucai and the tonal style of Tibetan thangka, and integrated the gold skills of Regong Thangka and the Han Gongbi painting techniques, and gradually formed its own unique thangka art style.
Promote art, pass on skills, and continue the context
The Niangben Thangka Art Museum in Beijing is home to rare minerals and gemstones of various colors, such as green malachite, blue lapis lazuli, red cinnabar, purple tortoiseshell, white mica, yellow arsenic, etc., from which the pigments used in thangka painting are used.
Nyomoto (middle) communicating with students
"The root of the thangka is the paint. "Niangben said that pure natural mineral pigments, grinding and blending stones, each procedure is done by hand, and it will not fade for thousands of years. Among them, the gold pigments used in thangkas are made of ground pure gold, and the paintings are painted with extremely fine gold threads.
According to Niangmoto, there are three main schools of painting in Thangka: Miantang, Zeqin and Karma Gadze, and each school has multiple branches. Regong Thangka makes good use of gold as pigment to present a brilliant artistic effect, the color is relatively bright, the pattern is delicate and exquisite, and the characters are numerous, which is good at expressing rich religious stories.
In recent years, under the protection of the state, the Regong art, which has a history of more than 700 years, has been included in the list of national and world intangible cultural heritage. In addition to thangka, there are four art forms of clay sculpture, pile embroidery, wood carving, and stone carving, but thangka is better, and there are many artists engaged in thangka production in the local area, and the production skills are passed down from generation to generation.
In Sichuan, Tibet and other places for several years of travel and research, Niangben has continued to explore, integrate and innovate, and promote the inheritance, innovation and development of Regong Thangka art. After returning to his hometown, he has been thinking about what he can do to the inheritance and development of national art and the significance of the society, he believes that Tibetan Buddhism needs to keep pace with the times, and traditional religious art should go out of the monastery and face the society. So, he had the idea of establishing an art academy. "The Academy is not only an exhibition hall for artworks, but also a place to teach and educate people and cultivate more artistic talents, where Regong Thangka art can be better protected and inherited. ”
With no funds, Niangben had to borrow money from everywhere. "The academy allows children from poor families to learn crafts and earn money at the same time", which seems to be a mode of operation with high investment and low returns, which has been opposed by family members. Under continuous persuasion, relatives and friends were finally moved by the firmness and persistence of the mother, and the mother raised a total of 3.8 million yuan.
In August 2006, Niangben founded the first Thangka Painting Academy, Qinghai Huangnan Prefecture Regong Painting Academy. The academy also broke the teaching tradition of "passing on men but not women, and inside but not outside", recruited children from poor families and orphans, and provided free conditions to learn thangka.
In the art academy, Niangben put a lot of effort into teaching students. "Drawing thangkas is a painstaking effort, you have to sit cross-legged on the floor, and draw from morning to night for a day, and this process trains concentration", he focuses on cultivating students' calm and quiet temperament. "You can sit cross-legged to sit firmly, and your hands are steady when you draw lines, but you can't sit on a stool," he says, he trains students to develop good painting habits from the very beginning.
Niangben has extremely strict requirements for students' paintings, "the face of the opening, the draft, the softness and delicacy of each line, and the thickness of the line must also be seen", "the kindness on the face of the Buddha must be drawn". He sternly pointed out that many students often hide their paintings for fear of being seen by their teachers in order not to be criticized.
Rinchen Dorje recalled the experience of learning to paint: "When I was learning to draw, I was asked to erase and redraw one pattern over and over again, and if I couldn't draw, I didn't want to learn anything else. I used it for a long time, and the lines went from stiff to soft to I like them, and I still remember the excitement after learning it. ”
Rinchen Dorje is the son of his mother, and he also studied with his father in the painting academy since he was a child, "From the beginning of holding the pen, my father patiently taught me by hand, so that I could understand how to face problems correctly when I encountered them. ”
His father's words and deeds taught him that whether it is life or painting, there is a truth in things themselves. We should have a correct understanding of life, find ourselves, find the purpose of life and the power that we love in our hearts.
Rinchen Dorje, who is now a provincial master of arts and crafts, said: "The most important thing my father taught me is to be a man first and then an artist, focusing on morality, otherwise it will be in vain to learn the best skills." ”
Over the years, the mother has not only taught her skills, but also insisted on both virtue and art, taking virtue as the first, and leading by example with a good social image and excellent works of literary quality and beauty. He has successively won the "First Chinese Art and Literature Youth Award", Qinghai Provincial Model Worker, National Light Industry Model Worker, National Rural Youth Prosperity Leader Pacesetter, and National Advanced Individual in Social Poverty Alleviation, etc., setting a good example for students to take the right path in a subtle way.
Artistic heritage is a mirror, and when you pour your heart and soul into it, it will reflect the most beautiful appearance of the world. Under the words and deeds of the mother, groups of students grew up rapidly, painted independently, and walked out of the art academy. Today, among the more than 20,000 local thangka artists, nearly 60% are students of Niangben. Among them, there are more than 270 people who have been rated as provincial arts and crafts masters, state-level arts and crafts masters, and county-level arts and crafts masters.
The feelings of family and country compose the melody of life, and spread the culture of Regong with heart and affection
At the Niangben Thangka Art Museum outside Beijing's Chongwen Gate, art collector Mr. Zheng stopped in front of a thangka painting for a long time, and he was deeply attracted by a painting made by Niangben that combines artistic aesthetics and top-notch craftsmanship, and finally took it into his favorite collection.
Mumoto (front row, first from right) teaches thangka painting lessons to students
Mr. Zheng often picks up a magnifying glass to carefully observe his delicate brushstrokes, and is often impressed by the noble and verveful demeanor of the Buddha figures in the paintings.
In recent years, the influence of Niangben Thangka paintings has expanded at home and abroad, and they are deeply loved by people in the cultural and artistic circles, religious circles and Tibetan academic circles at home and abroad. In order to let more people know about Regong art and like Thangka art, Niangben has been working hard for more than ten years to rescue, inherit, protect and promote the world's intangible cultural heritage Regong art. From the beginning of the trip to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macao and other places, to now go to Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea and other countries to show the world the fine art of Regong, for the art of Regong has won the highest praise and praise.
Today, in the Regong area, Niangben leads students and villagers to inherit the ancient thangka painting skills of the Tibetan people in the way of aesthetic art, and uses their pious religious beliefs and artistic creations to help more local Tibetan families to get rid of poverty and become rich through art.
The Regong Painting Institute founded by Niangben has now become the most famous painting academy in Tongren area, and as a national representative inheritance base, it has become a position to introduce and publicize Regong Thangka art to customers all over the country, and a comprehensive cultural institution integrating Regong art protection, inheritance, performance, innovation and research, training and sales.
"Our intangible culture has been passed down from generation to generation, and we must innovate in traditional skills and themes, and adapt to the development of the new era of society and the cultural and spiritual needs and aesthetic needs of the general public. Niangben also made a lot of attempts with a sense of the times in the content of Thangka, and created works such as "Princess Wencheng Enters Tibet", "Tibetan and Han Family", "The 10th Anniversary of Macao's Return", "The Founding Ceremony", "Four Medical Classics", and Mantang Long Scrolls, which have been collected by relevant state departments.
In the works, it is not difficult to feel the sincere feelings of Niangben's love for the motherland and hometown, and love for the traditional art of the nation. The integration and innovation of the ancient thangka art and the new era presents the characteristics and artistic charm of the new era of Regong thangka art, a national intangible cultural heritage.
Mumoto is an artist who is extremely demanding of himself, and he relentlessly pursues artistic perfection with a religious devotion to beauty. At the age of 37, when he was named a national master of arts and crafts, he was the youngest master in China at that time. Niangben could have lived a leisurely life, but like an ascetic, he refused to enjoy himself, and traveled hard year after year in the creation, inheritance and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage art, devoting himself to the creation and inheritance of Regong art.
Niangben Thangka works
"Being the inheritor of a thangka is not only an honor, but also a responsibility. I hope that through my own efforts, people from all over the world can understand China and traditional Chinese culture through Regong art. ”
Author: Reporter Li Ling
Editor: South China
[ This article was published in the 2024 issue of "Chinese Sons and Daughters" magazine ]