The Making of Butter Sculptures

The making of butter sculptures is rather unique and complex: Since butter melts easily it is modeled by hand in cold conditions (usually on winter days) by monk artists.

To make the butter more smooth and delicate, it is soaked in cold water for a long time to remove impure substances; then, the butter is kneaded into the shape of ointment. Before sculpting, monk artists must wash and take part in a religious ritual. Then, they begin to discuss the theme of the butter sculpture. After setting the theme, they elaborate on the concept, planning and layout of the butter sculpture. During this process, the work is distributed among the monks respectively. When all of the preparatory work is complete, the artists enter rooms at a temperature of 0℃ and begin their sculptures.

The first procedure is to set up a basic frame for the butter sculpture. This is executed using some simple tools, such as soft leather, hemp rope and hollow truncheon.

In the next procedure, modeling, two kinds of raw materials are employed. The first is a black mixture made from the used butter sculptures and ashes from burned wheat straw to mold different shapes on the frame. This process greatly resembles flour sculpting and clay sculpting. Then, the body must be revised and examined before the model is finally set up. The second raw material is a mixture made from the creamy butter and many colored minerals. These are painted onto the surface of the body, and golden and silver powder is used to draw the outline of the sculpture. This process concludes the modeling of colored images. In the last step, the butter sculptures are affixed onto several slates or a special basin as in the original design. The layout can create a flower image or a story called "frame of butter flowers."

Contents of butter sculptures

Ways of expressing butter sculptures vary greatly, covering a wide range of contents. Mostly, they center on Buddhism, historic stories, personal biographies, birds and beasts. As time goes on, they are imbued with the trends of the times. For example, the butter sculpture "The Story About Sakyamuni" not only enriched the traditional style of butter sculpting, but also reflects real life. In this way, the former single method has evolved into a multi-method system, including a combination of stereoscopic sculptures and reliefs -- a combination of single sculptures and multi sculptures.