Ｓｃｕｌｐｔｕｒｅｓ ｏｎ Ｇｏｕｒｄｓ Ｒｅｍａｋｅｓ Ｋｕｃｈａ Ｍｕｒａｌｓ

Ma Jianghong became famous when her sculpted Kucha murals on indigenous gourds of southern Xinjiang came into national limelight. Ma had her masterpieces exhibited at the Palace Museum in Beijing and discussed and displayed on a popular CCTV show. Her delicate gourds were on display at the Second China Folk Arts Festival held in Hangzhou at the invitation of the organizers. She was invited all the way to Hong Kong to appear at a television talk show. One of her gourd sculptures has been included in an eighth grade art textbook published by the People’s Education Press.

Ma Jianghong was not in the limelight in 1990 when she first sighted Kucha murals. Nor did she dream at that time of sculpting on gourds one day. She was an art student at the Xinjiang Teachers College. During a college vacation in 1990， she visited “Caves of Thousand Buddhist Images” in Kizil， Xinjiang. The Buddhist murals in 236 caves 67 kilometers northwest of Kucha， which was located on the Silk Road， were created over centuries by international artists from west. During her visit， Ma saw many caves had collapsed and many murals had been damaged. During this visit， she copied some remaining murals.

Back to college， she found herself obsessed with the beauty of the murals and wondered what she could do to preserve these ancient paintings. Although she did not yet have a definite plan， she began to collect photographs and paintings of Kucha murals. She asked friends to photograph Kucha murals in the collections of overseas museums.

While continuing to build up her collection of Kucha murals， she ran into large-sized gourds on a trip she took in the south of Xinjiang in 1992. During her visit， she saw some folk artists using electric irons to produce artistic designs on indigenous gourds. The artists’ rapt attention and artistry mesmerized her. The colored paintings on gourds looked so vivid that Ma was inspired to think， Why not translate a Kucha mural onto a gourd? Wouldn’t it be a perfect media to preserve the ancient murals? Despite the lack of a definite idea of what to do， she bought a gourd for 600 yuan.

Ma Jianghong contemplated in search of an ideal way to reproduce a Kucha mural on the gourd. Thinking burn marks created by the heated tip of an electric iron would look too conventional to convey the original beauty， she decided upon carving. The first question she needed to answer was: How much force should be applied to the hard yet brittle gourd so that the carving knife would not destroy the gourd? She practiced and experimented. The split nail on her right little finger was the best witness to her hard work during the initial period. The nail remains misshaped today.

It took her one and a half years to make her first gourd sculpture. It was done on her 600-yuan gourd and it is named “Twelve Muqams” (a muqam is the melody type used in Uyghur music in China’s Xinjiang for hundreds of years and 12 muqams are a complete system of folk melodies in set formulae). The carving displays various skills such as relief， intaglio and openwork.

The initial success boosted her confidence. In October， 1993， she took a journey to southern Xinjiang to buy gourds suitable for carving Kucha murals. By then she had acquired sufficient knowledge and experience to know what kind of gourds was good for carving. Good gourds were costly. The asking price of an ordinary gourd was about 20 yuan， but a high quality gourd would cost nearly 1，000. She bought 100 gourds in various sizes on this trip.

It has taken Ma Jianghong sixteen years to become accomplished in and recognized for her gourd carving. She has developed a formula for processing a gourd and completing a carving. It goes without saying that the first priority is quality gourds. To decide what to paint， she goes all the way to the caves， copies murals， comes back to find related information on specific murals so that she has thorough knowledge of each mural. To translate a chosen mural onto a gourd， she first reduces the size of the source mural to suit the size of the target gourd and makes a pencil drawing on a piece of paper in the right size. She then removes the surface layer of the chosen gourd before transferring the pencil drawing upon it. She carves in relief first and then turns to intaglio and openwork. With the carving done， she then adds colors. Each step is time-consuming and painstaking. Usually， a carving takes a year.

Ma has improved her skills and found some best processes through trial and error experiments. For example， in the beginning she used a sandpaper to remove the surface layer of a gourd. Now a gourd is doused in hot water for a certain period before a glass plate is used to scrape off the surface layer for a clean and perfect surface. A special calligraphic line has been found best for reproducing the charm of the mural images. She has found a way to make colors last.

Ma Jianghong would have remained unknown beyond Xinjiang for even a longer time， but it happened that Zhang Zhizhu， vice president of the National Palace Museum came to Xinjiang for a visit. Upon hearing of Ma and her original gourd sculptures， Zhang immediately set out to visit Ma at her home. He fell in love with the sculptures at first sight. Zhang became aware of the value and significance of Ma Jianghong’s ingenious recreations. In his eye， Ma’s sculptures retain and promote the charms of Kucha murals， representing the best of the regional ethic culture in Xinjiang. In September 2007， he forked out 100，000 yuan in cash and set up a special development foundation to promote the gourd sculptures of Kucha murals. He then began to make arrangements for an exhibition of Ma’s gourd sculptures to be held at the National Palace Museum.

Ma’s art displays a few unique characteristics: the gourds are big in size whereas its equivalents are rarely seen anywhere else in the country; her gourd art features unique sculptureswhereas gourd arts in other parts of the country are usually created through painting or pyrography; and her sculptures are miniature reproductions of ancient Kucha murals. Ma Jianghong was the only artist in the country who was doing this at that time.

Ma Jianghong’s solo exhibition was a great success and won rave reviews of domestic and international visitors. Zhang felt the exhibition was not enough. He made two subsequent visits to Xinjiang to further promote Ma’s art and appeal to local authorities to adopt measures and help form an industrial chain so that more farmers would grow the special gourds and more artists would take part in this art.

Behind the success of Ma Jianghong stand her husband and her son and other family members. The family strongly objected when she resigned from her job and devoted her future to the gourd sculpture. Her husband complained she did not do any house chores and he was extremely upset when Ma jealously protected her gourds which occupied almost all the space of their home. She felt extremely guilty， for she did no laundry for her son until he was more than nine years old. Even her own parents opposed her dedication at first. But her first carving changed her husband first. He just couldn’t believe his eyes that his wife produced such a sculpted masterpiece. He willingly did all the house chores. When the son grew up， the father and son took trips together to buy gourds from southern Xinjiang.

Her dedication has paid off. The Kucha murals are better known now and her gourd sculptures are eyed by collectors greedily. For example， one sculpture， created on a gourd more than 50 centimeters in height， carries a mural from Cave 76. Against a light brown background all over the gourd， a few figures， standing or lying， look extremely convincing and lucid. This is her favorite. A Japanese art dealer has offered 50，000 yuan for this sculpture.