The Dege Sutra Printing House, located in Dege County, does not look as big as a medium-sized temple. In the past, it used to be a monastery called Gengqing Temple. From about the 1940s, it gradually evolved from a temple to what it is today. Although it has neither a large scripture hall nor its own main statue, it is, like the Potala Palace in Lhasa, a holy place in the minds of Tibetans.
Strictly speaking, the Sutra Printing House is not a monastery. In other words, because the sutra printing houses are usually located in monasteries, but they are just a part of monasteries. But the Sutra Printing House in Dege is in a class of its own; its appearance—color, structure, scale, in a word, its appearance is really no different from a temple. Especially the big crimson red. If it wasn't this color, it might be more like a castle, a palace, or just a big house in an ethnic style.
In addition to the ground floor, the Sutra Printing House has three floors, which are where printing plates are stored, and where printing, binding and forming books. In the center is a not-so-large patio. In fact, before going up the ladder from one side, you can already easily distinguish the sound of the paper on the printing plate from the cheerful and loud singing of the people, and the sound of brushing and brushing vigorously and rhythmically .
The full name of Dege Sutra Printing Institute is "Tibetan Cultural Treasure Dege Sutra Printing Institute Dharma Library Auspicious Doors", also known as "Dege Auspicious Juhui Temple". Dege Sutra Printing House is known as "Encyclopedia of Tibetan Culture", "Bright Cultural Pearl in Tibetan Areas" and "Treasure House under Snow Mountain". The Dege Sutra Printing House is the world's largest manual woodblock printing center, where 70% of the ancient books of Tibetan culture are stored, and it is a symbolic banner in the traditional Tibetan culture.
The block printing technology of Dege Sutra Printing House is an important part of Tibetan intangible cultural heritage. In 1996, six items including Thangka painting, Tibetan paper skills, and Tibetan opera were listed in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage approved by the state. They all represent the engraving and printing skills of Dege Sutra Printing Institute. The ancient wolfbane papermaking and printing techniques of the Sutra Printing House were also included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006, becoming a precious intangible cultural heritage.
Climbing up the steps, dozens of master craftsmen are working enthusiastically in the corridors surrounding the patio. I saw them in a group of two, one of them applied ink on the inclined printing plate, the other laid the paper with his left hand first, and after holding a roller with his right hand, he pushed it over, and then lifted the printed paper, and a page was finished. When finished, every time a sheet is printed, one will naturally bow to the scriptures once. The whole process is done in one go, extremely fast, making people dizzying and dazzled.
This can no longer be used to describe these people who work like machines. The fastest couple among them were actually half-grown teenagers, running at high speed like an out-of-control machine, and the papers in their hands fell like snowflakes. When they took a page and looked at it, the handwriting was so clear. Moreover, their singing voices are the loudest. Even when Tibetans are engaged in such mechanical labor, they are so happy that everyone will be infected by it.
After printing, put the printed pages on the rope to dry, and then pass Bazhong's review to confirm that the writing is clear and the ink is evenly distributed before it is considered a qualified page. The final inspection and proofreading was carried out by three people including Baben (the chief manager of the Sutra Printing Institute). If the quality is qualified, it will be sent to the study room for tidying, smoothing, painting the surroundings with red, and binding them together to become the finished product. Finally, after collation and sorting, it can be bound and published.
The Tibetan printing at the Dege Sutra Printing House has been using the traditional woodblock printing technology for nearly 300 years, and many procedures are kept secret. First of all, the production of printing plates requires three processes: raw material processing, writing and engraving. From writing to engraving, only proofreading will go through 12 processes, and after printing, there will be several final proofreadings. Therefore, the Buddhist classics and painting base maps printed by Dege Sutra Printing House enjoy an excellent reputation in Tibetan areas, and are known as "the most standard classic version".
Due to the weather, the traditional printing process only takes half a year to print sutras, from March 15th to September 20th in the Tibetan calendar. The raw material of Dege papermaking is very unique. It uses the roots of a herb called "Ejiao Rujiao" (Chinese literature name is "Ruixiang chamaejasma"). The Dege paper made from "Ejiao Rujiao" is yellowish in color, thicker and thicker in texture, but the fiber is flexible, not fragile, and has strong water absorption. At the same time, because "Ejiao Rujiao" itself is a kind of Tibetan medicinal material with slight toxicity, the paper produced has the characteristics of no moths, no rats biting, and long-term storage. It is an ideal paper for printing and preserving documents.
The raw material of the printing plate is red birch. Choose a straight and knotless tree trunk, first saw it into knots according to the required size, and then saw it into 4-5 cm boards, smoke and dehydrate it with a low fire on the spot, then transport it home, and put it in the livestock dung pile (or pool) Medium retting system, until March to April of the following year, after the retting of the slabs, they are taken out and boiled in water, then dried, smoothed and planed, and finally become finished slabs, and the processed slabs are transported to the Sutra Printing Institute. After passing the inspection, it will be put into storage.
The printing plates are stored in a special warehouse. The wooden racks in the warehouse are as high as the roof, and the printing plates that have gone through vicissitudes but are still well preserved are densely placed on it. The rows of wooden frames are divided into fifteen grids, and each grid is densely packed with printing plates. Because there are too many and too high wooden racks for storing printing plates, it is easy to get lost in them if you pass through them a little bit. There is a handle at one end of the printing plate, but if you want to take out the first few frames of the printing plate, you have to go up the ladder.
On the street opposite the Sutra Printing House, there is a workshop for engraving scriptures, and several masters are carving wooden blocks. The engraving of printing plates is very difficult, requiring a group of specially selected celebrities who are proficient in Tibetan knowledge to strictly check and correct the books and portraits to be engraved to ensure their accuracy. Most of the scholars strictly follow the requirements of the "Forty Items of Tibetan Calligraphy Standards" to carry out the template writing work.
Afterwards, skilled calligraphers are responsible for directly writing the text on the embryonic board with a pen and handing it over to the stereotyped workers for carving, or cutting the transparent paper into a paper mold with the same size as the embryonic board, and the calligraphers will neatly write the characters. It is written on the paper model; finally, the proofreaded paper model is pasted on the embryonic board, and the engraver can carry out the engraving work according to the handwriting of the paper model. Basically, a skilled worker can complete the double-sided engraving of a printing plate in 2 days, while it takes 7 to 10 working days to engrave a painting plate.
It is precisely because of the unremitting adherence to this primitive and simple process that the volumes of classics and books that carry the painstaking efforts and spirit of generations have been passed down from generation to generation. Dege Sutra Printing Institute has been working uninterruptedly for more than 200 years with its almost picky methods of material selection, plate making, paper making, grinding, beautiful calligraphy, exquisite carving skills, and skilled printing process, so that the most primitive engraving printing skills are inherited. Come down and join the ranks of the cultural treasures of the world.