Painting on Ice: Fireworks-Free Land Art of Tibet
Traditional Tibetan culture features "land art" as well. The art's genuine aim is to benefit others, not to show off.
A traditional Tibetan rite, known as the 'Golden Bridge,' involves painting on ice. It takes place near the sacred mountain of Gaduo Juewu, in Chengduo County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, along the Tongtian River, which is the source of the Yangtze. Devout Tibetans treat the frozen river surface as 'paper' and golden sand and stones as 'ink,' producing enormous 祈福 'paintings' on the winter ice.
Known as the 'Golden River' in Tibetan, the Tongtian River gives this ritual its name—the 'Golden Bridge.' གསེར་ཟམ་ཟེར་དོན་ནི། འབྲི་ཆུའི་བྱེ་མ་གསེར་གྱི་དཔེ་རུ་བཀོད་ནས་གང་ཉིད་ཡུལ་ལུང་ཕན་ཚུན་སྦྲེལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཟམ་པའམ། འགྲོ་དྲུག་སེམས་ཅན་བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་ལ་འདྲེན་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ལམ་ཆེན་ལྟར་དུ་འདོད། The golden sand painting spans the two banks like an enormous bridge, supposedly carrying human beings to the blissful far shore. This practice has endured for close to a thousand years.
When spring begins, the thawing ice of the rivers merges with the immense golden sand patterns, and these are carried away upon the water's flow. Moving through the various streams and waterways, they bear prayers and deliver those blessings to every living being across the whole world.
The Museum of Stones རྡོ་ནི་བོད་ཀྱི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་འཚོ་བའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་རིག་གནས་ཀྱི་མཚོན་བྱེད་གལ་ཆེན་ཞིག་ཏུ་གྱུར་ཡོད་པར་མ་ཟད། སྤྱོད་སྒོ་ཡང་སྣ་མང་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ཞིག་ཡོད་པ་དང་། སྐབས་བབས་ཀྱི་རིག་གནས་རྒྱབ་ལྗོངས་དང་ལོ་རྒྱུས། ཁོར་ཡུག་སོགས་ཡུལ་དུས་ཀྱི་རྐྱེན་ཐ་དད་ཀྱི་དབང་དུ་སོང་ནའང་། རྡོ་ཡི་དངོས་ཡོད་སྤྱོད་སྒོ་ནི་དུས་རྣམ་ཀུན་ཏུ་འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པར་ཟད། དེ་ཡང་བོད་ཀྱི་ལྷ་རབས་དད་མོས་དང་དམངས་སྲོལ་རིག་གནས་ལས། རྡོ་ནི་ཤེས་ཚོར་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ནུས་ཅན་གྱི་སྣང་བརྙན་ཞིག་ཏུ་བློས་བཟོས་ཏེ། མི་ཡུ་ལུས་སེམས་ཀྱི་བདེ་བ་ལ་སྙོམས་སྒྲིག་གི་ཕན་ཡོན་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཞིག་ཏུ་འདོད་ཡོད་པ་རེད། དཔེར་ན། ཡོངས་གྲགས་སུ་གཡུ་སྔོན་པོ་ལ་བླ་རྡོ་ཞེས་བླ་ཡི་གནས་ཡུལ་དུ་བཞེད་ཅིང་། དེ་ཉིད་ལུས་ལ་བཏགས་ན་ཚེ་བསྲིང་བ་དང་དཔལ་བསྐྱེད་པའི་ནུས་སྟོབས་དང་ལྡན་པར་ངོས་འཛིན་བྱེད་སྲོལ་ཡོད། In Tibetan culture, stones hold significant importance.
Across different cultural, historical, and geographical settings, the roles and symbolic meanings of stones may differ, yet they serve as more than mere building or artistic materials; they bear the spiritual significance of beliefs, narratives, and traditions. Within Tibetan mythology and religious thought, stones are believed to possess consciousness and perception, with people envisioning them as living entities. These stones are said to be able to move, communicate, think, and exhibit supernatural powers, along with energetic qualities.
Certain stones are employed to harmonize and regulate the overall energy field. Turquoise, for instance, is regarded by Tibetans as carrying spiritual and auspicious qualities, capable of linking to the soul and safeguarding the survival and continuity of a person’s life. Consequently, stone ornaments are worn to ward off evil and attract good fortune.
The Stone Culture Museum རྡོ་བཟོ་རིག་གནས་བཤམས་སྟོན་ཁང་། occupies roughly 430 square meters in the Lasitong area within Labu Township, Chengdo County, under Yushu Prefecture’s jurisdiction. This site sits in an ancient village, where, as with the Bonpo stone mounds at Smugu Gang in Labu, the saying "Labkog's beautiful stones" has long been passed down among the people from the Dri River valley’s womenfolk through to today.
In Labu Township, the oldest Mugang Bonpo stone mounds in the region are preserved, and the saying "No girl in the Yak River Valley is as beautiful as the stone tools of Labuku" continues to be handed down even now. The goal is to establish China's first Tibetan Stone Language Culture Museum, which would focus on protecting and displaying the area's local stone art heritage, in turn generating a cultural tourism development highlight and enabling exchanges with stone cultures worldwide.
As part of the broader framework of rural public cultural services, this initiative draws on the archives and exhibition facilities of the village history hall to document the area's cultural traditions, customs, and historical legacy. In doing so, it not only revitalizes collective memory but also fosters the creation of new cultural expressions in response to evolving circumstances. Moreover, thanks to Lab Town's distinctive ecological setting and its rich, vibrant cultural atmosphere, numerous unique cultural assets have emerged organically. These include dynamic performances by local heroes and heroines, as well as Lab Town's circle songs, which together form a major draw for visitors to the region.
An appealing cultural brand has been established in Labu Township, owing to its distinctive ecology and abundant cultural-historical resources. For tourists, immersive cultural experiences come from representative offerings such as the primitive ecological song and dance "Bawu Bamu" and the intangible cultural heritage "Labu Guozhuang." Through such activities, both the everyday lives of local residents and a rich ethnic cultural tradition are brought to the fore.