Tibetan calligraphy

藏族書法是藏族文化藝術的重要組成部分。

基本介紹

• 中文名：藏文書法
• 外文名：Tibetan calligraphy
• Region：Tibet
• Time：2008
• ICH No：Ⅶ-64
• Category：Traditional art (folk art)

簡介

In the seventh century, when Songtsen Gampo was in power, his minister Thonmi Sambhota created the comprehensive system of Tibetan characters used nowadays by absorbing the advantages of different pictograph of Ancient India combined with Tibetan culture. Later, eight calligraphic systems were formed.

In 2008, Tibetan calligraphy was added into the second batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

History

There are two opinions about the creation time of Tibetan. One of them holds that Tibetan was created in the seventh century during the regime of Songtsen Gampo, the btsan-po (monarch) of Tubo (Tibetan regime in ancient China), by Thonmi Sambhota. The other opinion believes that Tibetan was created in Xiangxiong, now known as Ali area, during the period when Shenrab Mivofounded Bonismo, which means Tibetan has had a history of at least two thousand years since it was created.

Since the first creation of Tibetan, dozens of typefaces including uchen, cugrin, betsu and chuyig have emerged. And chuyig, which is named for consistency in writing and gracefulness in form, becomes the most useful and convenient typeface to be used wildly. Typeface, or calligraphy, is something attached great importance for Tibetan people. After practicing hard, normally, they can be able to master six or seven kinds of typefaces based on the basic knowledge of calligraphy

Tools

The drawing tools used to write Tibetan is bamboo pen. In order to practice three different typefaces, bamboo pens are divided into two types: round bamboo pens and triangularbamboo pens. As for the ink, it is made of willow branches growing on the plateau through three steps: putting into a silver-made container, calcining, cooling. Since the skills of producing pigments of Thang-ga become slick later, the pigments used to write Tibetan extendedfrom ink to pigments made of gold, silver, cinnabar, turquoise and other materials.

Feat

1. Calligraphy written with bamboo pens is also known as hard-tipped calligraphy. It requires a beginner to write in parallellike string the Tibetan script with a straight line, from left to right on the writing board with one-chi interval between two rows.

2. The structure features of Tibetan include putting basic word as a center with five individual words written before, ten added after and three on the top.

3. The pronunciation of Tibetan is based on the basic sound used in Dege County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefectureof Ganzi. Although there are differences among wild Tibetan inhabited area, the writtenform is the same.

4. The writing posture of Tibetan writers is different from writers of other calligraphy. Usually, they cross their legs, sit upright and use their left index fingers and left little fingers to control the paper with left palms posed upward on the knee right facing the heart. Their right hands do the actual writing: holding the pen with thumbs and index fingers at the part one-inch away from the tip and palm hollow in order to write smoothly.

5. The paper used is all made of natural materials, usually the root of wolfsbane. In particular, the paper made by the Sutra printing temple of Dege is the most authoritative.

材料

Ancient

Thonmi Sambhota: He is the inventor of Tibetan script. Over 1300 years ago, Thonmi Sambhota wrote a eulogy to Songtsen Gampo on the stone wall of Zengkelangduo Temple ( Zunmucai Temple in Maizhokunggar County), located in eastern Lhasa. The scripts were vivid as if frogs were jumping on the stone wall. Therefore, people in later ages name his typeface as Toad.

Nu Sanjay Yeshe: An eminent monk named Nu Sanjay Yeshe in the regime of Tridu Songtsen also created a new typeface which looks like a prosperous barley. Therefore, people in later ages name this typeface as Ke.

Ngamring Kinba: During the regime of Mangsong Mangtsen(650-676), the scripts of calligrapher Ngamring Kinba was praised as “neat like a row of bricks”. Therefore, people in later ages named it as Liezhuan.

Modern

Karsang Dorjee: His calligraphic works, mostly in the form of ume, chuyig and seal Tibetan script, are very influential in Tibetan area. He is the inheritor of the mounting techniques of karma gar brisschool of Thang-ga. He created gar mounting of Tibetan calligraphy on the basis of Thang-ga mounting, which allows Tibetan calligraphy to combine perfectly with mounting. His mounting techniques are practiced wildly in Kham area, Yunnan province and Ngawa area. He won the first prize of art department in the International Tibetan calligraphy contest. His scripts are elegant and smooth making his popular and much loved by people.

Dorji: His works of uchen and chuyig are influential in Tibetan area. His Primary instructions of condensed writing of Tibetan copybookbecame a textbook of calligraphy in Qinghai Nationalities University, Southwest University for Nationalities, Qinghai Normal University, Tibetan Language School in Sichuan Province and part of elementary and secondary schools in Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze and Ngawa.

Kunga: He is a famous rin-po cheand Tibetan doctor in Kham area. His scripts of cugtung and la and works of Sanskrit are influential in Tibetan area. Around Dege and Zhuqin, he supports charities and advocatestruthfulness, kindheartedness and beautythrough calligraphy. And he won the second prize in art department of international calligraphy contest in 2009, which made him more popular.