What are the cultural values of Gesar legacy culture and Tibetan Gesar painted stone carvings in modern times?

Painted stone carvings in Gesar, Tibet belong to the relics of Gesar culture in China, and their skills can be traced back to17th century. Mainly distributed in Seda, Shiqu and Danba counties of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, Gesar painted stone carvings in sertar county are the most representative.

Sertar county is located in the northwest of Sichuan. It is said that this place was once the residence of the clan of the spirit kingdom, and also the hometown of Nibendaria and Abenbuyi Pan Da, so Gesar has a profound cultural heritage and is known as the "hometown of Gesar art".

The painted stone carving of Gesar is a pioneering work in the history of Tibetan art in China. It takes the core content of the heroic poem Gesar as the object of expression, combines exquisite stone carving skills with traditional painting, and reproduces the magnificent historical scene of King Gelsall and all his soldiers fighting bravely for the people's interests with a unique artistic style.

The production process of Gesar painted stone carvings is complex, which generally includes stone selection, composition, carving and coloring. Sertar county is rich in natural shale resources, and artists generally choose natural slate with relatively hard stones and good plate shape as raw materials for stone carving. However, with the decrease of local shale resources, it is necessary to go to Daofu Bamei, Kangding Tagong and even further places to purchase stones for stone carving.

Stones can be divided into three categories, and artists usually decide whether the selected stones are lettering, Buddha carving or ordinary pattern carving according to different materials. After the slate is selected, it needs to be soaked. Generally, a soil pit is dug, the slate is placed in the pit, then covered with a layer of soil and sprinkled with water. After six or seven days of soaking, the slate was made. The purpose of this is to make the stone hardness moderate, and it will not burst when carving, so as to ensure smoother lines.

Although Gesar painted stone carvings have made immortal contributions to the promotion of Tibetan traditional culture, the shadow of lacking successors in skill inheritance has not been eliminated. Carving Gesar is like a hard and tiring job, and I don't earn much money. An extra month can earn more than 1000, and sometimes it's only a few hundred dollars a month. Young people are willing to work and earn money. Due to the special requirements of Gesar's paintings on artists' quality, the limitation of artists' work nature and the influence of market economy, some artists gave up this skill and switched to other occupations, which is worrying.

Gesar painted stone carvings have been placed in the open air for a long time, which has caused serious natural damage due to the cold plateau and the invasion of strong ultraviolet rays. In the 1960s, it was almost destroyed by man-made, and the related carving skills were basically lost. Since 1980s, with the advocacy and organization of Aya Lama, Gesar's stone carving skills have been revived. However, because Gesar's painting has special requirements for the quality of artists, and stone carving artists are basically farmers and herdsmen or temple monks, who engage in painting and stone carving in their spare time, and some of them give up this craft and switch to other industries, so Gesar's painting and stone carving skills are facing the situation of being passed down from generation to generation, which urgently needs support and protection.