The Flickering Flame of Wisdom: Butter Lamps in Himalayan Culture
This silver butter lamp, titled "Longevity Vase Base Jewelry Silver Butter Lamp," was crafted in the Lhasa region for longevity or ritual use. Dating to the first half of the 19th century, it is held in a private collection. Numerous references to this lamp appear in the records of several prominent monks belonging to the Gelug and Sakya sects.
Held in the NDTH Museum collection, this 19th-century "Set of Offerings: Water Offering Bowl and 'Tudeng' Style Butter Lamp" is documented in museum records as having originally served as an offering vessel within the imperial hall of the Potala Palace. The designation "Tudeng" style traces its name to the 13th Dalai Lama, Tudeng Gyatso (ཐུབ་བསྟན་མཆོད་ཀོང).། མར་མེའི་སྣོད་ནི་སྟོང་གསུམ་གྱི་སྟོང་ཆེན་པོ་ འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ཁོར་ཡུག་དང་མཉམ་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག། སྡོང་བུ་ནི་རིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རི་རབ་ཙམ་དུ་གྱུར་ཅིག། མར་ཁུ་ནི་མཐའི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཙམ་དུ་གྱུར་ཅིག། གྲངས་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་རེ་རེའི་མདུན་དུ་ དུང་ཕྱུར་རེ་རེ་འབྱུང་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག། The grandeur of the lamps matches that of the three thousand great worlds; the wick stands as firmly as Mount Meru; the oil extends as far as the boundless oceans; and their number reaches billions, offered before every principal Buddha.
According to scriptural accounts, Atisha Dipamkara and his seventeen disciples frequently recited the prayer while venerating holy places in the Western Tibet region, and this passage is taken from the "Prayer of Offering Lamps," a work attributed to Atisha Dipamkara (982-1054).
A photograph titled "The Devotees Holding Butter Lamps and Butter Pots," taken by Professor Michael Aris in 2002, is preserved at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. In a private collection, the painting "Swayambhunath Stupa with Royal Procession in Front, Nepal" bears an inscription saying it was painted in 1816; one of its details shows a bowl-shaped lotus flower lamp next to the donor. From the Rubin Museum's 18th-century work "Four-armed Avalokiteshvara and Various Lotus-holding Avalokiteshvara," a detail displays a "Gaden" style butter lamp on the altar, known as the "Gaden" style (བཀའ་གདམས་མཆོད་ཀོང) because its base resembles a Gaden-style stupa butter lamp; some biographical texts call it a "stupa" style butter lamp (མར་མེའི་ཀོང་བུ་མཆོད་རྟེན་ཅན). Specialists in South Asian art history believe this form rose to popularity during the Tibetan Empire period and consider it the most essential local adaptation of butter lamp design, with the most evolutionary variations. The essence of Tibetan lamp culture resides in "the firm belief and the long yearning." When the hidden master Palden Lhamo (1450-1521) rises slowly from the depths of the lake, holding the burning lamp in his hands and returning to the crowd that questions him, the lamp that remains unextinguished in water stands as a symbol of the practitioner's faith. From the "seven offerings" of the lamp offering to the offering of the celestial maiden holding a lamp in hand, hundreds, thousands, even millions of lamps embody the prayers of monks and laypeople. The lamp's light dispels all darkness produced by the three poisons, and lighting it can "eliminate the suffering of karmic obstacles and emotional levels." Across past, present, and future; through heaven, earth, and hell, the lamp of wisdom and compassion guides sentient beings to liberation. For the endless thoughts of loved ones and mentors, those thoughts burn and melt with the body of butter. Scholars meditate from the lamp's wick, perceiving both the yin realm and the Buddha's pure land; the fiery state of a burning lamp can also be used for divination in various pursuits. Conch-shaped, spherical, dim light, split light, gemstone-like—these indicate completeness, peace, obstacles, disasters, and wealth. The small lamp in front may be tiny, yet it is no different from the world of samsara; the butter in it may be little, yet it is no different from profound wisdom. Gazing at the lamp brings the four complete accomplishments.
A 19th-century set of three butter lamps, decorated with silver filigree and engraved auspicious symbols, is held in a private collection; these are recorded as having seen original use at the lakeside boat palace within Norbulingka's Summer Palace. An 18th-century silver-engraved butter lamp stand featuring auspicious symbols and designed for a Longevity Vase belongs to the Rubin Museum, and it is thought that Emperor Qianlong may have presented it to the 6th Panchen Lama. The Rubin Museum also houses a late 15th-century work titled "The Black Treasury of Enmity: Lineage Chart of Teaching Transmission," which in detail shows butter lamps situated among various offerings before a patron. Certain early ritual writings describe the Buddha lamp's form as follows: "The lamp body is like an inverted bell and the lamp stand resembles a vajra." The development of Tibetan butter lamps is understood to have occurred in three phases（མར་མེ་-སྒྲོན་མེ་-ཏལ་/ཏ་ལ་ལ་-ཀོང་བུ་）, the first of which, during the imperial era, saw a blending of styles and ritual practices for these lamps.
The lotus-style short lamp and the "Kadang" style butter lamp, the two most popular butter lamp types in Tibet, originated in South Asia. A gradual localization of butter lamp design emerged from the 11th century onward. Then, starting in the 17th century, these indigenous designs took on a more secular character. The finest surviving butter lamps today date primarily from this later era.
In addition, there are three other varieties: butter lamps ( བླ་མ་མཆོད་ཀོང་), which were in use prior to the 17th century; guru butter lamps ( གོང་མ་མཆོད་ཀོང་), which were favored during the Sakya period; and monarch butter lamps ( ཕོ་བྲང་མཆོད་ཀོང་), which were favored during the Pagzhak period. Compared to guru butter lamps, which feature a wider mouth and a shorter pillar, monarch butter lamps have a mouth that curves inward and a longer pillar. Palace butter lamps are distinguished by a mouth that spreads outward and a pillar shaped like segments of bamboo.
In Tibet, following the 17th century, the two most widespread butter lamp varieties are the earlier "Tudeng" style and the "Gesang" style (བསྐལ་བཟང་མཆོད་ཀོང་), which came into being during the era of the 7th Geshi Gatsang Gesang Gyatso. Characterized by an outward-flaring rim and a broad, flattened body with a narrowed midsection, the "Gesang" butter lamp features a distinctive silhouette. Butter lamps in Tibet are typically fashioned from metals, ceramics, or stone.
A rare and sizable offering lamp, complete with a set of combinations, dates from the 19th century and is held in the collection of the National Museum, New Delhi. Its catalog title reads: "Longevity Offering Vessel Base Jewelry Decorative Silver Lampshade Top Combination Butter Lamp.