JIANG LU

Sutra Hall of the Xiana family

The Dege Sutra Printing House holding and exhibition of wood block printing in 1999 in Shenyang.

It is a typical Tibetan house with a large stone slab paved courtyard. As I entered a fierce Tibetan dog came rushing from behind a pile of straw stacks. I hurriedly stepped back, but the dog came to a halt as he was tied to a willow tree. At the sound of the barking, Nongbu Chilin, his master, ordered him to retreat, and we entered the sitting room. Nongbu Chilin, 30, is a noted dancer in Yunnan. He is of the Tibetan ethnic group and lives in Zhongdian. At his invitation, I visited him last summer.

Behind the courtyard is a Tibetan building and next to it is a modern house beautified with glazed tiles and decorative patterns. In between the two is a toilet in the Tibetan sense.

"The modern house is newly built. What we owned formerly is the Tibetan building. Its first floor is for animals, and the toilet used to be on the second floor, " explained my friend.

"To the right of the Tibetan building used to be animal shelters." Tibetan-Style House

Tibetan houses in Zhongdian County are huge even by modern standards. A 1991 survey shows each farmer's house in Zhongdian covered a constructed area of 200-400 square meters, with some even surpassing 800 square meters.

"Mine is of more than 300 square meters, " said Nongbu Chilin. According to him, a Tibetan building has solid foundations paved with stones. The upper part is a wooden and clay structure. The walls are whitewashed.

The part that leads into the courtyard—such as the door, window and staircase-is wooden. The three other sides are clay or stone walls each measuring about 0.7 meters thick; the higher the house, the thicker the wall. The bottom of the house is used generally to house domestic animals and store food. It has no window at all. The second floor, with small windows, serves as living chambers.

As I talked to my friend, his elder brother, Zhishi Chilin, came out of the building together with his wife. The woman, dressed in Tibetan style, had "plateau red" in her cheeks-which is the result of strong ultraviolet rays. They invited us to chat inside.

I followed them up to the second floor via a long corridor. We entered a tiny empty room through the door on the left. Via the makeshift staircase, we moved further up to the third floor until we reached what they call the "central hall". It is a combination of two rooms, with a combined area of more than 100 meters.

To the left of the "central hall" is a decorative "water pavilion", which is enchantingly engraved. Inside the "water pavilion" are two vast jars containing drinking water for the family.

"In the past, women were charged with fetching water from the river which is comparatively far away, " said Nongbu Chilin, adding that Tibetans here were not supposed to fetch water using carrying poles and buckets.

"We began digging wells in our courtyard in the 1980s. And, now, we use water buckets and carrying poles. "With the water pavilion, we no longer have to fetch water from distant source."

Traditional objects such as the Eight Auspicious Portrait glistened in the central hall. Most spectacular, however, was the central pillar, called Bigar in Tibetan. Standing in the center of the hall, it has a diameter of one meter and serves as the symbol of the house owner's wealth. Its top is carved with patterns of dragons flying in clouds and patterns unique to Tibet in the shape of flying birds. Viewed from a "distance", it looks like a memorial arch. Below the top is decorated with paper cut flowers, wheat tassels and arrow banners, which bear the Tibetan words Zhaxi Deleg—meaning "auspicious".

Tibetans worship the central pillar during major festivals. The traditional way is that, when the family members enter or leave the hall, no one is supposed to walk between the pillar and the fireplace. "Only my grandmother, now 75, still follows the tradition, " said Nongbu Chilin.

As soon as I entered the room, I presented a hada scarf to the shrine that contains a Portrait of the Auspicious Potala Palace Clouds and a portrait of the Panchen Erdeni. According to Nongbu Chilin, a shrine is generally complete with a pair of vases containing tealeaves, paper flowers, bird feathers and hada scarves. Sacrificial objects would include buttered lamps, incense burners and bowls to be filled with sacrificial water. Some families offer brown sugar and some other objects.

"Our grandmother burns incenses and recites sutras here twice a day-in the morning and in the evening, " Nongbu Chilin said.

"There is a special way for us to burn incense. The incense burners are filled with hot ash from cooking stoves. When cypress wood dust is added, smoke comes out.

"In front of the shrine stands a fireplace called Togka. Supported by an iron tripod, it has four bronze kettles called Sanggo, which are pasted together with clay. It has to be rebuilt during each Spring Festival. Two of the four are placed higher than other two, and are used to boil hot water for the family. The two lower ones are used to cook feed for the pigs and boil water for cows. On the beam over the fireplace hangs a shelf called Chomcha for milk dregs to be smoked. These are fresh and tasty.

According to Nongbu Chilin, local tradition separates men from women when they sit in the same room.

"The male sits against the southern wall, and in the order from the old to the young. A guest is generally seated inside. When an old person is present on the occasion, the old will be arranged to sit in the front, " Nongbu Chilin said.

"Females are generally arranged to sit close to the shrine in order of age.

"In my home, our grandmother sits in the seat close to the low cabinet. Next to it outwardly is the seat for Mother. We made the arrangement also for them to make tea to entertain our guests. Gradually, it becomes fixed in terms of seniority."

Spreading around the main hall are four living chambers. The one behind the shrine is for the Grandmother, as it is close to the fireplace. At the farther end of the corridor is the Sutra Hall, which can be approached from the right door. I was astonished by its glistening atmosphere. The ceiling, walls and pillars are covered with painted or carved religious patterns in dazzling variety.

According to Nongbu Chilin, local families love to have a sutra hall set in the second or third floor. There is no special stipulation with regard to Buddha to be worshipped at home. However, the water bowls and butter lamps are always full of sacrificial water or butter. "We worship Sakyamuni, Zongkapa and Living Buddhas, " Nongbu Linchi explained.

The locals are very hospitable. Buttered tea is always offered. When I was seated by the fireplace, Zhishi Chilin's wife made tea for me containing butter and salt. The utensils used to make the tea included a teakettle called Soila. Measuring 0.3 meter long and 10cm thick, it is a piece of hollowed wood. Other tools included a club, which is smaller in diameter than the teakettle but has two teeth to facilitate pouring the tea out of the kettle. When Zhishi Chilin's wife was making tea, she pushed the club upward and downward a dozens of times, until the tea was ready for drinking.

She poured tea into two wooden bowls inlaid with silver, one for herself and one for me. According to Nongbu Chilin, if you wish to have the second helping, you should leave some in the bowl; if you have had enough to drink, you should finish all in the bowl—otherwise, the host will add more and more incessantly. If you wish to eat zanba (roasted highland barley flour), you should leave some buttered tea in the bowl, which will be used to make dough.

After the buttered tea, Zhishi Chilin's wife entertained me with milk dregs. This, said Nongbu Chilin, was the most important food for the most important guests.

For a whole afternoon, we sat drinking buttered tea and eating milk dregs. While we did so, Grandmother kept chanting the Six-Syllable Prayer Words.