Paint, Appliqué and Butter: Three Ways Ta’er Monastery Tells a Story

At Ta’er Monastery, murals, appliqué embroidery and butter sculpture offer three distinct ways to build an image. A 2020 exhibition at Beijing’s Prince Gong’s Mansion grouped these practices in its presentation of Qinghai intangible heritage. Pigment spreads across a wall; cut silk is layered and stitched into raised forms; butter is modeled in the round. The exhibition brought together heritage objects and demonstrations from several parts of Xining, giving visitors a chance to compare materials that usually belong to different settings.

A Huangzhong account describes the appliqué process through colored silk cut into shapes, layered, attached and sewn. The cloth’s edges and seams remain visible in the finished relief. A mural, by contrast, is part of an architectural surface; butter sculpture takes shape in a material that must remain cool. The different surfaces guide the eye differently: a painted wall opens outward, stitched cloth gives a picture height, and modeled butter occupies space from every side.

Butter sculpture runs on another clock. Artists begin in the tenth lunar month and cool their hands while they work so the butter will not soften. The finished forms appeared at the 2026 Lantern Festival. A 2023 project supported by the Qinghai Department of Science and Technology collected images of appliqué works into a digital protection resource library and used computer-assisted analysis to help with pattern design and production.

The materials also shape how each work is cared for. A mural remains bound to its building; stitched silk carries its own seams and raised profile; butter sculpture depends on cool conditions from workshop to display. The “three arts” meet as a conversation among wall, cloth and modeled form, each holding an image for a different length of time.