Butter sculpture Lantern Festival is a Tibetan festival.
Butter lamps began in the seventh year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, and were created by Zong Kaba, the founder of Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, when he founded the Zhao Chuan Fa Conference in Lhasa on the 15th day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar. Zong Kaba presented butter sculptures and lanterns to the golden statue of Sakyamuni in Jokhang Temple, and used butter sculptures and lanterns to commemorate Sakyamuni's surrender to evil spirits. Another view is that the butter sculpture lantern is to celebrate the victory of Buddha Sakyamuni in the debate with other sects.
Every year, on the 15th day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, major monasteries in Tibetan areas hold oil-colored plastic arts exhibitions, that is, images of immortals, figures, flowers and trees, birds and animals made of colored ghee are lit with butter lamps to pray for blessings. Tibetans call it "ganden Angqu", a traditional religious festival.
Extended data:
Origin of Lantern Festival custom in butter sculpture;
The Tibetan custom of worshipping Buddha with ghee can be traced back to Songzan Gambu period. In the middle of the 7th century, Tang married Fan, Princess Wencheng entered Tibet and married Songzan Gambu, and the statue of Sakyamuni brought by Princess Wencheng was enshrined in Jokhang Temple.
According to the Buddhist tradition, there are special regulations on supplies for Buddha. Offering flowers is charity, burning incense is keeping precepts, offering clear water is humiliation, burning incense is diligence, providing rice is dust removal, and providing lamps is wisdom.
Because it was winter, I couldn't find one of the six flowers, so I had to mold a bunch of flowers with ghee and offer them to the Buddha. After Zong Kaba, the founder of the Gelug Sect, successfully studied Buddhism, a large-scale prayer ceremony was held in Jokhang Temple in Lhasa in order to commemorate the Buddha Sakyamuni in the seventh year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1409).
During the Fa Conference, Zong Kaba dreamed that thorns turned into light and weeds turned into flowers, which Zong Kaba thought was a display of fairyland in dreams. In order to let everyone see the fairyland, Zong Kaba organized people to mold all kinds of flowers, trees and rare treasures with ghee, reappear dreams, and offer them to the Buddha for lighting together with ghee. This activity continues to this day.
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