[Explanation] It is currently December in the Tibetan calendar, and the Tibetan New Year is approaching.
In a Tibetan-style courtyard near the Ramoche Temple in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, a group of villagers from Duosuo Village, Pusong Township, Renbu County, Shigatse City, are making butter flowers, one of the must-have items for the Tibetan New Year.
The raw material for making ghee is ghee. In order to make it solidify and form, the ghee must be made in a low temperature environment to prevent the body temperature from warming up and affecting the shape of the ghee. In the process of kneading the ghee, the hand should also be immersed in ice-cold water from time to time to cool down.
The colorful ghee is twisted and transformed into different shapes at the fingertips, and then pasted on a shield-shaped wooden board. In this way, a pair of brightly colored ghee flowers are completed.
[Concurrent] Tenzin Tsering, a middle school student in Renbu County
Every time when the Tibetan New Year is approaching, we come to (Lhasa) to make ghee flowers, this time I do (is) the second year.
When I started making ghee flowers, (feel) the water was cold, but now I'm used to it.
Right now the pattern I'm doing is petals, next year I'll do something a little more complicated.
[Commentary] Tenzin Tsering is only 16 years old, but he is very skilled in making shortening flowers. Tashi, who is the same age as him and is studying in Renbu County Middle School in Shigatse, also came to Lhasa with his father and brother to start a month-long shortening flower making .
Tashi sat cross-legged in front of a pot of cold water and made butter flowers beside his father. After his father pinched the intricate patterns, Tashi filled the blank parts with butter petals.
In Tashi's hometown, the skill of making butter flower is a skill that they will master since childhood and passed down from generation to generation.
· [Same period] Tashi, a student of Renbu County Middle School
What I am making now is this butter flower. My father taught me this craft. Then my father taught us this craft. I also have a younger brother. He went to junior high school and will come to Lhasa to make this (ghee flower).
[Explanation] In a small room, a blossoming butter flower "blooms" at the fingertips of the villagers. From father to child, the blooming butter flower never withers.
Reported by Xie Mujiang flying to Lhasa
Responsible editor: [Ye Pan]