I am a painter, painting the walls of the palace.
Photographed by Xing Delong
Photographed by Xing Delong
This temple in the hearts of believers,
- Lhasa folk song
Photographed by Basang
The bright moonlight spills onto the white wall.
"The bright moonlight pours over the white walls" is a metaphor frequently used in classical Tibetan literature, usually expressing purity and innocence. At the change of autumn and winter each year, the white walls of the Potala Palace appear particularly dazzling as people begin the annual "changing new clothes" event for it. Not only the Potala Palace, but also many traditional temples such as the Jokhang Temple, and even ordinary people's homes will be painted with new paint before the important Tibetan cultural festival "Lhabab Düchen" (Buddha's Descent Day, which falls on November 22nd in 2024) approaches, symbolizing the farewell to the old and the welcome of the new.
Nowadays, volunteers are not just the monks, but the people of Lhasa and tourists also have the opportunity to participate. Every morning, people queue up under the Potala Palace with various plastic buckets, to receive paint from the Palace staff who are already waiting. At this time of year, "licking the Potala Palace" and "the sweetest palace" become key words, because the paint often contains ingredients such as milk, honey, and saffron, to increase adhesion. However, with the development of modern technology, this practice is gradually being phased out, and now more bone glue is added to the materials for better pest and decay resistance.
Basang is a Han Chinese who came to work in Lhasa last year. Basang is his Tibetan name. In addition to his work, he not only writes articles about Tibet, but also is a photography enthusiast. This year, he not only volunteered to participate in painting the Potala Palace for the first time, but also used his camera to record the Lhasa volunteers splashing paint between the white walls and red walls.
"I participated in this year's Potala Palace painting volunteer event. Early in the morning, we lined up at the foot of the Potala Palace. I was surprised to see so many local people voluntarily participating in painting the walls, and the age range was particularly wide. There were people as old as sixty and as young as six or seven who were brought by their parents to experience it. What made me happy is that the younger generation made up a large part of the volunteer team, which makes me feel that the young people in Tibet not only value their own culture, but also actively participate in it."
Spider-Man on the red and white wall.
It is well known that the red and white colors are the base colors of the Potala Palace, and in the context of the construction history of the palace and Tibetan history, these two colors represent the local political power (white palace) and the Gelugpa religious authority (red palace). From a cultural perspective, the red and white colors also represent the deep beliefs of the Tibetan people, which can be traced back to as early as BC. Some scholars believe that the "doma" (red, also known as "tso") used in Tibetan folk ceremonies is divided into red and white, with the white being used for benevolent deities and the red for wrathful deities. It is said that in ancient times, the red was dyed with the blood of livestock, reflecting the basic attitude people held towards these colors. As history progressed, this color concept not only did not fade but continued to develop. In later generations, people began using different colors to distinguish different philosophical groups, and to represent more abstract and obscure philosophical thoughts.
White in the midst of five colors
Represents both the Great Sun Buddha among the "Five Buddhas"
And the pure and clean round disk of the lotus flower
According to a report from 2004, the traditional method of painting with "Sui Kawa" in the snowy areas of Tibet was quite different from what it is today. Back then, they would first make a wooden board, with one end nailed with a piece of woolen fabric and the other end nailed with a rope. When applying the plaster, people would hang the rope from the roof and pour the mixture down along the rope. The mixture would flow through the rope and wooden board onto the woolen fabric, and the people above would move the board up and down, left and right, while dragging the wet cloth, following the instructions of the "Sui Kawa mother" from the bottom of the mountain, in order to complete the painting work in this way.
Reborn from the ashes
The annual painting work is an important part of the maintenance project of the Potala Palace, because throughout history the palace has suffered numerous natural disasters and man-made wars. During the Tubo era, the Potala Palace experienced fires and lightning strikes, and during the Langdarma period, it endured cultural destruction campaigns and the "Battle of Wu Yu" instigated by Langdarma's two sons, resulting in turmoil and chaos in Lhasa. Many important places in the Potala Palace were damaged, with only the Phawang Dorje and the Holy Avalokitesvara halls rumored to have survived. Subsequent efforts by the ancestors of Tibetans led to restoration and reconstruction. In the 19th century, local governments and the country continued to protect the Potala Palace. However, a fire in May 1984 served as a reminder that more effort needed to be invested in the protection of the palace.
Potala Palace painter
Photographed by Xing Delong
"The dusk was deepening, and I heard a loud shout coming from behind the wall, completely different from the usual joyful noise made by the crowd passing by the temple, or the occasional commotion caused by alcohol. The shout quickly turned into screams. I rushed into the courtyard and immediately saw thick smoke rising from the right side of the Potala Palace, with flames in the middle... Along the way, I saw some old people bowing their heads and chanting prayers, many of them holding various containers of water and pouring it upwards. Going up the platform, there were somewhat chaotic wooden stairs with no electricity in the hall, complete darkness, people using butter lamps or flashlights to light the way, pushing each other up; in the dimness, I reached out and grabbed onto any fixed objects in front of me, making sure they were reliable before slowly climbing up. Water was spilled everywhere, making the wooden stairs very slippery. The narrow staircase already had poor ventilation, and at this moment, in addition to the smoke from the butter lamps, wood and silk fabrics were burning, releasing choking smoke in the stifling heat, visibility was extremely poor, making it almost impossible to advance. Finally, when I reached the top floor, it seemed that someone was kneeling down and lying on the side, gasping heavily and coughing incessantly. It was many years later that I learned that the place of the fire was the Jokhang Buddha Hall.
In the account of the contemporary renowned painter Pei Zhuangxin, the fire was later confirmed to have been caused by a short circuit in the lighting circuit. This incident also marked a significant turning point in the recent history of the Potala Palace's restoration, as it led to the first large-scale renovation in its history."
Pei Zhuangxin
