Oldal 337 [337]
OCR
CREATING MONGOL DSURAG AND RE-CREATING BUDDHIST ART TRADITION IN MONGOLIA the evolving Revolutionary art and later Soviet art set in. The iconoclasm of Buddhist sacred art followed on an official level while objects survived hidden or transformed to museum objects, often in anti-religious museums.° The anti-religious campaigns of the mid-20" century almost ended the tradition of Buddhist art among the Mongols.f It was the period of transformation from traditional Buddhist thangka style to the new modern “national style” of Mongol Dsurag, or Mongolian Painting. Wellknown (monk) artists who used the Buddhist iconographic style to represent daily life were namely Balduugiin Sharaw, known as Mardsan (Busybody), Jamba nicknamed Tsagaan (white) and Jügder who usually had worked for the Eighth Jebtsundamba Khutugtu, the last theocratic ruler of Mongolia, also known as the Bogd Khaan. Balduugiin Sharaw’s (1869-1939) artistic career is of interest as being entrenched to be the one who combined the tradition and modernity: he was a painter ofthe Bogd Khaan Palace and the Bogd Khaan gave the nickname Mardsan (Busybody) to him as he was gambling a lot. He transformed the traditional style of painting to Mongolian portraits, and then later created revolutionary posters and portraits. His first tutor as a Buddhist iconographer had been Jantsan, a locally famous dogshin (fierce) Buddha painter and sculptor. Sharaw combined mineral paints with ink as well as Buddhist canons and symbolism with (socialist) realism. Like the contemporary photographs, his portraits often depict a clock, as an icon of modernity. The book Mongol Dsurag from 1986 by Nyam-Osoriin Tsiiltem identified the paintings the “Koumiss Festival” (Urs gargakh) and “Autumn” (Namar) as painted by Sharaw but with question marks which referred to the uncertainty of Sharaw’s creation.’ However, the paintings such as the “Winter Palace of the Bogd Khaan” (Bogd Khaanii öwliin ordon), “Summer Palace of the Bogd Khaan”(Bogd Khaanii dsunii ordon), the “Koumiss Festival” (Urs gargakh) and “Autumn” (Namar) are attributed to B. Sharaw today. He pushed two traditional Buddhist genres, the depiction of a sacred place (Sharaw also painted Lhasa) and the depiction of animal and human life (in the “Wheel of Samsara”, the Buddhist concept referring the cycle of birth, life and death), presented in ethnographic realism. Today, the painting “Autumn” is irrevocably entitled as “One Day of Mongolia” (Mongoliin neg ödör) painted by Sharaw in the public awareness. Jambal, a clerk (donir, Tib. don gnyer) of the Bogd Khaan Palace, named deities (burkhan) and portraits (gundaa, Tib. sku ‘dra) that Sharaw drew for high-ranked lamas such as the Bogd Khaan, Bidsiya Tsorj (Luwsandondog) and Baldan Khachin. Jambal recalled the skill of Sharaw: “When Sharav painted someone’s portrait, it looked more identical than the person’s patiar, or photo. The portrait painted by > Lang, Maria-Katharina: Ritual Objects between Conflict and Census: The Social Life of Sacred Artefacts during Periods of Political Transformation in Mongolia. In: Ritual, Conflict and Consensus. Case Studies from Asia and Europe. Ed. Kilianova, Gabriela — Jahoda, Christian — Ferencova, Michaela. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna 2012, 51-62. 6 Atwood, Christopher: Encyclopaedia of Mongolia..., 52-53. Tsultem, Nyam-Osoryn: Development of the Mongolian National Style Painting “Mongol Zurag” in brief. State Publishing House, Ulaanbaatar 1986. The word patiar used among Mongolians is an inverted form of the word ‘portrait’ (Rus. nopmpem) referring mainly to photos. 335
