The Statues Of Testimonies And Creativity

The contemporary anthropology study calls the static schema of functionalism and structuralism into question, this makes topics like practice, perception, emotion and creativity, which relate close to individual agency, the hotspots of the subject research. Under such a background, as a field of both passion and cultural code, Art redraws the attention of anthropology. However, the transformation of the research paradigm also causes great changes of the anthropology's cognition into Art. Art is no longer regarded as objects, but as a special set of pragmatic system, it maintains interaction and reproduction with society and culture in the process of intervention into practice. This dissertation takes the art practices of Thangka painters in Karma Village, Qamdo County of Tibet Autonomous Region as a field work case, tries to discuss the law and ingenuity of the Buddhist iconography through the process of a Thangka's being drawn. Based on this case, it explains the continuity and change of Art, responses to the argument in anthropology of the relationship between structure and agency.For the research perspective, the author of this dissertation proposes to begin with the aspects of skill and artistic style, to describe in depth the drawing process of Thangka, while placing this process into a specific context and a paradigm of cultural apperception, attempting to combine the art practitioner's inner concept and behavior with the external culture and society. For the research method, adopting the investigating method of multi-site ethnography to the same community, the author participates personally in, and experiences the art practice of the painters in Karma from a multisensory dimension. In the writing of ethnography, it presents the co-construction of the researcher and the object of research, and the process of the fieldwork which makes the research deeper step by step.This dissertation constitutes the introduction, the text of 6 chapters and the conclusion. In the part of Introduction, it arranges two aspects of researches:the anthropological research to art practice and the academic research to Thangka, then concludes the personal researching perspective and method. In the first and second chapters, investigating Karma Village's contact with the external through two lines of both synchronic and diachronic, it presents the circumstance and background of the Thangka production. On one hand, the locals had close connections with the external in history, the Thangka of Karma Gardri School which has been passed on in Karma Village is the result of multi-cultural communication itself; on the other hand, under the contemporary social background, the painters in Karma are facing more opportunities and challenges in a more complicated social and cultural circumstance.From the third chapter to the sixth chapter, it represents the drawing process of Thangka by following the artistic tetramerous-organizing mode(concept, behavior, works, feedback). In the third chapter, it discusses the concept of Buddhist iconography, tries to interpret the painter's choices of the style and language, and to further explain the relationship of Buddhist iconography, iconometry and Thangka. in the specified circumstance of Karma Village, from the concept of drawing and the motive of creation. In the fourth chapter, it makes deeper discussion to iconometry, kind of a law in drawing. Through the investigation to the painters'various kinds of learning styles, their understanding and reference to different versions of the iconometry discourses, and their ways of applying iconometry, it explores the Karma painters'illumination and application of this drawing law. In the fifth chapter, it presents the case of a Thangka's drawing process in a specified circumstance, by describing aspects such as the painter's choice of working place and his selection of copartner, his cognition and expression of the painting object and his multisensory perception etc. it researches the tension between the painter's personal creativity and the painting style in such a process that a Thangka was continuously repainted. In the sixth chapter, it counted on the painter's feedback on art works. Various commercial exhibitions of Thangka, and its being declared as magnum opus of the non-material cultural heritage, all these evoke the Karma painters'reflection of what is Thangka and what is Karma Gardri, it pays close attention to the painters' self-inspect when they encounter the commercialization of Art, and the exploration to Thangka's future. According to the discourse above, this research makes the preliminary conclusions as following:Firstly, under the contemporary circumstance in which the international communications become thorough and deep, and in which the western art tradition occupies the leading position of the international art field, whether insisting on the indigenous art tradition actually becomes a challenge to the local artists, following the Buddhist traditional law to draw Thangka becomes an active choice for Karma painters.Secondly, Karma painters regard drawing Thangka as a way of cultivating themselves, they use multisensory in the process to perceive and realize the secret principles of the power of Buddha. The painters'worry of where they are staying, the signature on Thangka and the changes of style in real life, all these reflect that they are making choices and seeking balance in religion, economy and Art. However, because of the painters'invisible inner activity called "Faxin"(making up one's mind), as the Buddhist iconography, Thangka is Art, while different from comment Art. Especially in this era when the Art of Thangka becomes goods and collections in art market, it is just "Faxin", the insistence on Thangka's religious holiness, enhances the value of Thangka, as the Buddhist iconography.Thirdly, Thangka painters inspect and verify the power of Buddha by drawing. Generations of excellent painters'practice according to the law has added new comments to this painting tradition. In the Thangka painting practices in Karma village, painters called excellent refers to those who make their best to inspect and realize the law and thus get close to their ideals. Although there always exists distance between ideal perfect and real practice, there are some painters keep making efforts to go beyond themselves in the law, pursuing their everlasting belief.