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Tibetan Butter Sculpture is a special form of art made of ghee. Fortunately, after the founding of the Bonismo, Tönpa Shenrab Miwoche changed a lot of primitive belief methods, including the way to offer a sacrifice to deities, and so on. The new way is to use Zanba and ghee to form a variety of colored thread disks to replace the animals to be sacrificed, therefore reduce the killing. This is the origin of Tibetan butter sculpture.
Artistic Value and Religious Status
Dolma and Butter sculpture were widely used as offerings by other Tibetan Buddhist denominations and became a major feature of Tibetan Buddhism. Many of the customs and traditions of modern Tibetans have also been passed down from the ancient Bon religion. Many unique ways of praying of Tibetans are also relics of the ancient Bon religion, such as kora/worshipping/circumambulating the holy mountains/lakes, scattering wind horse flags(Longda), hanging multi-colored prayer flags, engraving Buddhism scriptures on stones, and placing mani piles, divination, worshipping the Dolma plate, butter sculpture, and even using a prayer wheel, etc. All the abovementioned features are now indivisible of Tibetan culture.
Today, you can see butter sculptures in many Tibetan Monasteries. Kumbum Monastery(aka Ta'er Temple), which is located in Xining, Qinghai Province, is well-known for its finest butter sculpture. As one of the "Great Three Arts" of Kumbum Monastery, Butter Sculpture is shown as Buddha statues, figures, landscapes, pavilions, birds and animals, flowers and trees, etc. The collection of butter sculptures in the Kumbum Monastery not only has quite high artistic value and style but also has a grand scale and colorful contents.
Artistic Value and Religious Status
Dolma and Butter sculpture were widely used as offerings by other Tibetan Buddhist denominations and became a major feature of Tibetan Buddhism. Many of the customs and traditions of modern Tibetans have also been passed down from the ancient Bon religion. Many unique ways of praying of Tibetans are also relics of the ancient Bon religion, such as kora/worshipping/circumambulating the holy mountains/lakes, scattering wind horse flags(Longda), hanging multi-colored prayer flags, engraving Buddhism scriptures on stones, and placing mani piles, divination, worshipping the Dolma plate, butter sculpture, and even using a prayer wheel, etc. All the abovementioned features are now indivisible of Tibetan culture.
Today, you can see butter sculptures in many Tibetan Monasteries. Kumbum Monastery(aka Ta'er Temple), which is located in Xining, Qinghai Province, is well-known for its finest butter sculpture. As one of the "Great Three Arts" of Kumbum Monastery, Butter Sculpture is shown as Buddha statues, figures, landscapes, pavilions, birds and animals, flowers and trees, etc. The collection of butter sculptures in the Kumbum Monastery not only has quite high artistic value and style but also has a grand scale and colorful contents.