![]() Nowadays, Chinese and Tibetan factories also 3D-print small statues using different materials: metals, wax, and silicon statues of renowned Buddhist masters that have recognizable features – though the latter is not as popular as the traditional metal statues. Additionally, there exist painted scrolls depicting departed or current Buddhist masters arranged according to traditional iconography, coloring, and mounting but with realistic faces. Photographs of Buddhist authorities are commonly seen on Tibetan home shrines and also in temples where they are placed on the seat of the master when he is not present. Realistic images of beloved masters – dead or alive – are not unusual in the Tibetan cultural sphere. Like other well-executed waxworks, this model had hyperrealistic features and a glow that made him look alive. gter ston) in Kham, a Nyingma adept who was considered a discoverer of hidden teachings. The statue was of a locally famous tertön (Tib. In its lap sat a donation box with a hand-written message saying, lag pas ma reg rogs/ (“Do not touch”). The shop was run by a Tibetan artisan monk from Kham who had been operating a workshop for religious objects for several years. The first Tibetan wax statue that I saw was sitting in a showroom in Wuhouci, the Tibetan market in downtown Chengdu that is the center for trade with Tibetan Buddhist goods. I also know of two statues of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one in Nepal and one in Bhutan, and a statue of the Sixteenth Karmapa. 2019), and there are the wax models of Buddhist authorities installed in Tibetan monasteries in Kham. Nowadays, one can see Tibetan waxworks in museum displays, for example in Litang Khampa Museum (est. Wax is used to create a strikingly realistic mimetic likeness in artifacts – in terms of form (it is malleable), coloring (it easily absorbs paint), and light (it holds light, making models look alive) (Ballestriero 2009 and Napolitano 2017).īefore waxworks came to Kham in the 2010s, I am not aware of any uses of wax in Tibet except to craft molds for casting. I have to admit, however, that they have a powerful and compelling force because they look so lively. I never understood the desire to be in the same room as those eerie mimetic copies of the living and the dead that looked alive but were arrested in disturbing stillness. Nonetheless, I have not visited any of the world’s twenty-four Madame Tussauds wax museums. Waxworks have a long history in Europe, where they have become part of popular culture. There are four main forms of wax effigies, one being the votive ceroplastic such as Catholic body relics (Napolitano 2017), and the other three are secular forms the modern wax doll that looks like an infant (Wallace 2014), the anatomical model used for scientific research and pedagogical purposes (Ballestriero 2009), and the popular waxwork that was commercially exploited, most famously by Madame Tussaud (Kornmeier 2008). ![]() ![]() Historically (and outside of the Tibetan context), wax has been used to make votive tablets and molds for bronze casting, and later to create incredibly realistic and evocative wax effigies. ![]() I will consequentially talk about wax and waxworks, following the popular naming of hyperrealistic statues that resemble living beings. And what is known today as wax effigies signify “…statues simulating human form, whether or not they are made of wax.” (Bloom 2003: 266). Nowadays, when we talk about wax, we often do not mean beeswax, but something similar, usually chemically produced, such as silicone, plastic, and acrylic. In this article, I introduce the waxwork as a new medium of Buddhist materiality, and I present one assemblage of a deceased religious authority and its living maker.īefore the early nineteenth century, all wax was beeswax. My research explores different Tibetan waxworks (in Kham and Chengdu in China) and how people discover, desire, produce, acquire, and engage with waxworks of the living and the dead – all of which are topics for future articles. Tibetan waxworks are particularly fascinating in relation to the Buddhist sacred. The hyperrealistic aesthetics extends their presence among devotees since wax can be formed and colored to look exactly like the living person. It is usually departed Buddhist masters who are immortalized as wax effigies. The waxwork is a new medium of Buddhist materiality that now coexists with the metal statue, the photograph, and the painted scroll in the Tibetan cultural sphere. ![]()
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