Disappearance Of The Complaint,

Wrath of the Serfs, a group of clay sculptures commissioned by the Propoganda Department of the CPC Tibetan Autonomous Region Committee in the late Cultural Revolution to mark the 10th anniversary of the Region, was created in Lahsa by 9 faculty members from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in one and a half years. Using academic manners and Wrath as the clue, the work inlcudes some one hundred life size clay sculptures and the surrounding murals, condemning three dimensionally and deeply the cruel oppression of the three Lords of old Tibet on the Serfs. The work were displayed in the Gallery of Tibetan Revolution at the Square of the Potala Palace, and with realistic modeling , radical content of condemnation, the central position of display and massive media coverage, it produced quite a sensation soon after its completion.However, with the end of the Cultural Revolution, this groups clay sculptures was quickly forgotten and eventually dismantled. Wrath of the Serfs as a whole no longer exists today.The paper attempts to represent the facts of its creation and exhibition, and to examine the evolution and development of Tibetan fine arts in terms of subject matter, with iconological and sociological methods. There is no questioning that Wrath of the Serfs is significantly influenced by the Rent Collecting Courtyard, but the differences are also remarkable, with the Wrath involving both class and ethnic issues and highlighting the oppression on the serfs of old Tibet. After reviewing the evolution of the subject matter of Condemnation in the art of New China, the paper comes to the conclusion that the iconography of Condemnation is first originated in the prints of the Liberated Areas, and is closely associated with opera in terms of the modes of narrative.A Comparison of the western description and the reality reveals two contrasting narratives of old Tibet, of "Hell" and of "Paradise". Wrath of the Serf artistically denies the western idea of Tibet being a perfect "Sacred Realm of Snow", showing that the Shangri-la in the western heads could only be a remote mental fantasy.