【Buddha's Edge】
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, tianzhu temple on the Tianzhu Mountain in Hangzhou was famous for its Buddhist victory temple, and pilgrims flocked to worship and incense was very popular. Vegetarian food in the temple is in short supply, and there are not enough chopsticks for meals, so for emergency use, the monks have to cut bamboo into chopsticks for pilgrims to eat. Because this path of bamboo is cut into bamboo chopsticks, bamboo grows in Hangzhou's Tianzhu Mountain, and "Tianzhu chopsticks" get its name.
【Hand art】
Tianzhu chopsticks, made from natural path bamboo, retain the original bamboo green, do not paint, emit a faint bamboo fragrance, this is the best response of craftsmen to nature's gifts - cherishing things. The natural presentation of a pair of Tianzhu chopsticks, there are more than 20 processes before and after, from the initial cutting of bamboo (feeding), truncation, selection of materials, cooking, exposure to branding, grinding, loading, polishing to the final hardcover finished product, completely relying on the hands to delicately and accurately grasp the details, all depending on the craftsman's ingenuity and achievements.
【Craftsmanship・Heart】
The craftsmanship of Tianzhu chopsticks has been passed down to the sixth generation. The association between each generation and Tianzhu chopsticks, the adherence to and re-inheritance of traditional handicraft culture, have continued the history of Tianzhu chopsticks, so that it can regain its new life in the new social form. In today's industrialized and mechanized world, a pair of Tianzhu chopsticks not only condenses all the painstaking efforts and strength of the artists, but also undertakes the mission of trying to use the warmth and ingenuity of hand craftsmanship to awaken people's innocent memory of beauty and nature.
【5th Generation And Successor】
Wang Liandao, the fifth generation inheritor of the provincial time-honored brand "Tianzhu Chopsticks Making Technique", designed "Hangzhou Four Treasures" and won the national patent.
Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Master, Chinese Arts and Crafts Master, Zhejiang Province "Excellent Folk Art Talent", Hangzhou C Class High-level Talents, in 2016 won the "China Time-honored Outstanding Craftsman Award".
In 2019, he was named "Gongshu Craftsman", in 2019 he was awarded "Hangzhou High-level Talents" (Category C), in 2019 Zhejiang Province, he was awarded the "People's Learning Star" in Zhejiang Province, and won the 2019 Gongshu District Non-Genetic Heritage Protection Contribution Award.
He showed us some Tianzhu chopsticks with artistic atmosphere and Hangzhou elements, which he said were craft gift chopsticks, all designed by himself. The artistic qualities cultivated by practicing calligraphy, painting and sealing carving every day were of great help to him in designing Tianzhu chopsticks.
He poured his life's energy and effort into saving the "endangered" Tianzhu chopsticks, a precious heritage of Hangzhou. Finally, the effort paid off, in 2006 he reorganized the Tianzhu chopstick factory, transformed the equipment, but also innovated the process, the cultural elements introduced into it, the developed series of products have won various awards, the enterprise was awarded the title of "Zhejiang Province Time-honored Brand" and "Zhejiang Province Intangible Cultural Heritage Productive Protection Base".