Buryat Buddhist sculpture in the works of Maxim Tsoktoevich Gomboev

Abstract

Buryat Buddhist wooden sculpture is a unique art form, which incorporates the basics of  the iconographic Canon, the possession of a chisel, painting, a kind of artistic vision of  the deities  images because of the synthesis of Buddhist and local shamanistic cultures. A  fusion of the Buddhist Сanon and a folk interpretation of the deities character is clearly manifested in it.  In the modern period, this art form is experiencing difficulties associated with the almost complete loss of continuity between generations of “old” masters from among the Lama clergy, repressed in the 1930s, and masters of the turn of the 20th – 21st centuries. In this context, the Buddhist wooden sculpture of M.Ts. Gomboev is an important link in the preservation and development of this tradition. The author describes in detail the  process of the artist, technology, tools both in woodcarving and in metal work. An  important result of the study is the correlation of the Buddhist Canon and national Buryat traditions, a folklore interpretation of canonical plots, images, and color. There is a  continuity with the school of S.-TS. Tsybikov and the works of the Mongolian artist Dzanabadzar in the creative heritage of M.Ts. Gomboev.