Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai held an annual exhibition of butter sculptures on Feb. 22, the 15th day of the first month of Tibetan calendar, drawing around 200,000 tourists and Buddhist followers from around the world, Xinhua reported.

The Kumbum Monastery, located in Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province was built in 1379 at the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. it is one of the six major Gelug monasteries in China's Tibetan-inhabited areas. The butter sculptures, murals, and barbola(embroidered Thangka) of the monastery are called the “three unique arts”. Butter sculptures were created by Tsongkhapa, and the Butter Lamp Festival began during the reign of the Ming Dynasty with a history of more than 600 years. Today, the Kumbum Monastery’s butter sculpture display is the largest and the most influential in the Tibetan-inhabited areas. 

Starting from every September, the monastery’s monks go to nearby yak herders to purchase low-fat yak butter, the raw material for making butter sculptures. The monastery begins to make butter sculptures in October and finish in two months. Butter sculptures include statues, figurines, birds and animals, as well as flowers and vegetation, which are composed into stories to convey Buddhist doctrines to followers. Thanks to their bright colors, unique crafts and exquisite modelling, butter sculptures were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.

On Jan. 14 of this year, Kumbum Monastery’s “three unique arts” were exhibited in Paris, France, and received a warm reception from overseas Chinese in France and French people who were interested in Chinese culture.