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Talking to Buddha by engraving

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-17 17:46

LHASA -- The sound of stone-engraving breaks the morning tranquility of Mount Chakpori, on the opposite of the Potala Palace, in Lhasa, where a group of craftsmen are working to build the largest stone sutra pagoda in Tibet.

With a small mallet in one hand and a chisel in another, nine youngsters, sitting or squatting under a large piece of broken gray cloth shelter, are engraving lines of Tibetan sutra "Kangyur" into the stone slates. Less than 20 meters ahead is the pagoda, which is not yet completed after 14 years of construction, but embodies all their piety and faith to Buddha.

Tokdan Dawa Rinpoche, the sponsor of the pagoda, is sitting, with his legs crossed, on a carpet nearby the simple workshop, chanting sutras as throngs of devotees, with prayer wheels in hand, bowed to him and passed by, heading for the pagoda to pray along a dusty path.

As a tradition for centuries, Tibetan Buddhism believers engrave the sutras and Buddha images on stones as a way to keep the classics. It is also believed that the engravers, called "duoduo" in Tibetan, are able to achieve more happiness in their next lives through the toil of inscribing.

It has been a long-cherished dream for Tokdan Dawa Rinpoche, the 60-year-old abbot of the Ahjue Norling Monastery in southwestern Sichuan Province to build a stone sutra pagoda in Tibet to "carry forward both the traditional art of Tibetan stone-engraving and the power of Buddhism."

"Stone survives from times, with the essence of Tibetan Buddhism engraved on it," said Tokdan.

The abbot traveled around to allocate the funds for the project and finally started to realize his dream on Mount Chakpori -- a traditional site for stone engraving since the reign of Songtsan Gambo, who introduced Buddhism to the plateau region more than 1,300 years ago.

"The sutras of different sects in Tibetan Buddhism share the same root of Kangyur, that's why I decided to choose it as the topic," he said.

According to Tokdan, usually a full set of Kangyur sutra includes 108 parts, each of which is written on a book of 200 to 400 pages. The engravers have finished inscribing the sutra and more than one million of stone slates piled into a 13-floor pagoda of more than 30 meters high.

The abbot is also critical with the stones to build the pagoda. Those from the Kambu County nearby Lhasa finally won his heart. The caesious stone slate, which is about one centimeter thick, should first be dyed with deep red paint before the engraving.

A wooden top for the pagoda has been finished and is expected to be in position in June, when the 50-meter-high pagoda will finally stand atop of Mount Chakpori.

The abbot has named the pagoda after the sutra inscribed on it as "Kangyur" and he also planned to invite a respected lama to write a book about the pagoda, detailing the reasons and course of the construction. However, his name and those of the engravers will not appear in the book.

Peace in Engraving

More than 100 engravers -- some from sophisticated stone-engraving families and some novices -- have volunteered to help build the pagoda. Most of them have worked here for five to six years though their pay for a whole-page Kangyur sutra is only 10 yuan ($1.46).

Life is simple but strict for the devout engravers -- no alcohol, no smoking and no illegal doings. Those who violate the rules will be driven out of the team, losing the qualification for "further religious cultivation," said Tokdan.

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