| The Chinese civilization has a long and profound history.It is the most unique spiritual symbol of China,the foundation of Chinese culture,the spiritual bond which connects Chinese people around the world,and the most precious key to China’s cultural innovation.Since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,General Secretary Xi Jinping has frequently stressed the importance of classifying traditional cultural resources.He has also encouraged people to bring museum collections,natural heritages,and written documents back to live.The UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site,Potala Palace,houses over 100,000 collections.They are high in level,diverse in type,and excellent in quality.The Palace also collets 39,288 Chinese,Tibetan,Mongolian,Manchu,and Sanskrit literal documents,as well as dozens of Tripitaka in various editions,materials,shapes and sizes.These valuable literatures have documented the forming and growing of an untied country under the efforts of all the ethnic groups.They have also witnessed their communication and interactions.Thus,these documents are especially vital when it comes to historical studies.Printed books are most common among literal documents,their edition differs according to the Printing Houses.A Printing House plays a significant role in compiling,engraving,and printing books.Therefore,a thorough research on Printing Houses is not only beneficial for cataloguing and protecting these precious treasures,but it also is an inevitable step of inheritance and utilization.Historically,the Potala Palace had established four Printing Houses,the West Printing House(shol bar khang shar)has been the most influential one.Since its establishment,West Printing House has produced many fine wood-block printing plates,it has helped preserving plenty of endangered scripts and has printed countless Buddhist canons.It has had extraordinary influence both domestically and internationally.This article aims at doing an in-depth study on West Printing House’s history and its printing plates.It untangles the origin and development of the Printing House,reveals the reasons,historical background,and the influence of its construction by focusing on several key historical figures.This paper uses multiple research methods to comb out the literature,objects,and architecture involved.It discusses the printed books,precious objects,historical figures,and cultural history that are interlinked with West Printing House.It consists of 5 chapters:The introduction puts forward the purpose,ideas,and methods of this paper.It summarizes West Printing House’s relevant literatures,archives,objects,and other materials as well as general studies on Tibetan typography and printing houses.It delimits several concepts mentioned in the paper,sorts out the transmission and influence of engraving typography in Tibet,and briefly states the history of Tibetan engraving typography and Tibet’s printing houses.The first chapter uses the history and current condition of the West Printing House as a thread to explore its constructing motives,relations with other printing houses,and the printing plates.The chapter consists of three parts: Firstly,it points out and explains that Tripitaka,especially Kagyur,has played certain role in the establishment of the Printing House.Secondly,it puts focus on the current condition of the Printing House,including the architecture itself,and the statues along with the murals inside.Thirdly,it summarizes the characteristics of printing plates of the other three printing houses of the Palace.It further analyzes the status,functions,and influence of West Printing House in the history of the Potala Palace.Printing plates are an essential element while doing textual research,proofreading,and categorizing on printed documents.Hence,chapter two mainly discusses the printing plates of West Printing House’s subject,carving and proofreading process,and their characteristics.It focuses on the Printing House’s building history at three stages: during the time of the 13 th Dalai Lama(1920-1933),and the two regents(rwa sgreng sku phreng lnga pa thub bstan ’jam dpal ye shes bstan pa rgyal mtshan1934-1940)and(stag brag khri sprul gsum pa ngag dbang gsung rab 1941-1950).In addition to Buddhist canons,West Printing House had also carved printing plates about Tibetan history,literature,language,technology and so forth,among which,are important plates such as Kagyur and the Buton Compilation.Carving time,scale,quantity,and process of these important plates are discussed,along with main personnel who oversaw the supervision and proofreading process during production.West Printing House’s history as well as its printing plates’ types,characteristics and their origin are the focus of this chapter.The third chapter explores the establishment and operation system of West Printing House,as well as its production of printing plates from an institutional perspective.It conducts research on its management system by looking through current literal documents.This Printing House was under direct jurisdiction of Tibet’s local government,the Potala Palace had been managing it by using the same system as other institutes.However,as a printing house,it also shares similar operation system as most other printing houses in Tibet.Therefore,its establishment,management,and operation system and other aspects are affected by the local government,meanwhile,its scripts’ categorizing,plates’ engraving making,and printings shares a non-profit nature as other traditional Tibetan printing house.This chapter explores the consumables such as boards,paper,ink,and other raw materials needed to produce printing plates.It looks at how folk corvees,craftsmen from various industries,government officials,and other personnel play their roles.At the same time,by comparing different printing plates,this chapter explains where and how the printing plates of West Printing House were made,and what are their characteristics.Finally,it roughly discusses interactions between Ganten Pozhang Printing House and the West printing House.Chapter four analyzes the establishment of West Printing House from historical,political,cultural,and religious points of view.The establishment and operation of the Printing House are driven by two aspects: firstly,the overall political and social environment of early 20 th century had created a favorable condition;secondly,the flow of history,experiences and decisions of the 13 th Dalai Lama had also played an active role.This chapter also discusses the positive influence of the Printing House at that time,and its constrictive role in Tibetan local culture and in Chinese culture.Lastly,based on previous discussions,it puts forward some questions as well as answers to how to protect and utilize the Potala Palace’s literal documents,and how to upgrade protection and research methods of the Palace’s printing plates. |
