The Art And Archaeological Studies Of Qutan Monastery Murals

Qutan Monastery, the Tibetan Buddhism temple, located in Ledu, Xining, QinghaiProvince, leads the art exchange of the Sino-Tibetan Buddhist. It was built in Early MingDynasty, which during the special period of time between Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty.Named by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang himself, participated the construction by the imperialinstitution, it showed that support of building the Qutan Monastery was the landmark event ofthe policy developed from the Early Ming central power towards Tibet. Coordinated with theChinese imperial style, Qutan Monastery murals perfectly displayed the charm of the Chinesetraditional art of painting.This article, with the profound interpretation of the history background and art characterof the Qinghai Ledu Qutan Monastery murals formation reasons and stages, indicates that it'srepresentative ambulatory murals showed the distinct Early Ming Dynasty imperial art style,directly associated with the new main current style Zhe Style at that time as well. However,the element inherited the Tibet region style showed in Qutan Monastery murals of the threemain palace, also connected with Western Tibet region who represents the Guge Style. It mayrevealed the peculiar connection of Eastern Tibet and Western Tibet, exceeded the CentralTibet. With the method of culture communication studies, analyzing the Qutan Monasteryambulatory murals among the background of Tibet history of painting, it indicates its greatinfluence on the Tibet painting. Qutan Monastery ambulatory murals was the start point thatthe Tibetan Buddhism Painting style changed towards the east, representing Chinesetraditional painting, changed the direction of Tibetan Buddhism Painting, influenced theformation of Tibet native painting style, promoted the modern transition of the Tibet art ofpainting, therefore, the Tibet art of painting got to approach the inland painting more,eventually formed the standard structure of the New Menri Style, with the foundation of it'sown native character and the influence of the art of India and Nepal.Through multi-analysis, this article indicates, that formerly most of researchers onlystudied the content of the pictures of the Qutan Monastery murals, didn't profoundly analyzedits transition and formation cause of the art style. It is worth to discuss the tight relationsbetween Qutan Monastery murals' native region culture character and Central China's Culture,in addition, it associated with the adjacent Gansu Yongdeng Miaoyin Temple, GanenTemple mural art style too, meanwhile, its figure sculpture and decoration in the partialmurals replenished in Qing Dynasty influenced by its native Regong art.