{"id":420871,"date":"2026-01-20T06:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/420871\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:39:09","slug":"buddha-artisans-carve-out-a-living-from-a-dying-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/420871\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddha artisans carve out a living from a dying trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>IN a dimly lit workshop in eastern China, craftsman Zhang measured and shaped a block of wood into a foot as dozens of half-completed life-sized Buddha statues looked on silently.<\/p>\n<p>Zhang is one of a dwindling number of master woodcarvers in the village of Chongshan near the city of Suzhou, where generations of residents have made a living creating Buddhist and Taoist sculptures for display in temples across China.<\/p>\n<p>Carving the intricate statues, which are often adorned with bright paint and gold leaf, was an art he learned from his father.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy grandpa and my grandpa\u2019s grandpa were also craftspeople,\u201d Zhang said in his dusty studio.<\/p>\n<p>But \u201conce our generation retires, there will be no one left to carry on the tradition\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He blamed a combination of unattractive pay and youngsters\u2019 unwillingness to dedicate time and energy to mastering the craft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou need to do this for at least five or six years before you can set up shop on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gu checking on Buddhist sculptures after the gilding process at a workshop at the village in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. \u2014 AFP\" src=\"https:\/\/apicms.thestar.com.my\/uploads\/images\/2026\/01\/20\/3728280.jpg\" onerror=\"this.src=\" https:=\"\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 400px;\"\/>Gu checking on Buddhist sculptures after the gilding process at a workshop at the village in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n<p>Zhang said the village had received a boom in orders starting in the late 20th century, after a loosening of tight government restrictions on worship led to a resurgence of interest in religion across the country.<\/p>\n<p>But now, fewer people are commissioning new pieces with the market already \u201csaturated\u201d and most temples around the country already furnished with statues.<\/p>\n<p>Gu, who specialises in carving the heads of Buddha sculptures, proudly showed off the subtle expressions on the faces of a row of gilded figures in her storeroom.<\/p>\n<p>She grinned as she explained that some sculptures of famed Buddhist monk Ji Gong even showed him smiling on one side of his face and frowning on the other. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IN a dimly lit workshop in eastern China, craftsman Zhang measured and shaped a block of wood into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,176386,151578,49,48,95,176387,132293,356,75,176389,33095,176388,17266,176385],"class_list":["post-420871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-buddha-statues","tag-buddhist","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-chongshan","tag-craftsman","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ji-gong","tag-suzhou","tag-taoist","tag-tradition","tag-woodcarving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}