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Demand for sutras overwhelms printers
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Lhasa resident Chodron has been on the waiting list for a woodblock-print sutra from her local monastery for a year, and she will need to wait another two years longer.
Sutras are texts used in Buddhist ceremonies. Traditional varieties, printed by hand on paper with carved wooden blocks, are particularly prized for their resistance to fading. Formerly reserved for the rich and noble, demand for these sutras has surged since ordinary people could access them with the founding of Tibet Autonomous Region 50 years ago.
Craftsmen skilled in the time-consuming production of woodblock sutras are struggling to keep up, even with government support for training more printers and building extra workshops.
鈥淧eople鈥檚 preference for woodblock prints partly lies in the fact that they can last over 500 years, while offset prints fade after 100 to 200 years,鈥 said Nyima, deputy director of the Buddhist Association of China鈥檚 Tibet branch.
Chodron ordered her sutra from Meru Monastery鈥檚 400-year-old printing house, the largest producer of woodblock sutras in Tibet. But even it can only turn out about 700 sutras each year, including about 600 Satasahasrika Prajnaparamitas, a particularly demanding work of around 100,000 lines.
Tibet only has around 60 traditional sutra printing houses, struggling to supply more than 46,000 monks and nuns in over 1,700 temples and countless other Buddhists in Tibet.
Also on Meru Monastery鈥檚 waiting list are foreign countries and individuals. The United States and France have purchased several scriptures for libraries.
To help meet demand, the Lhasa government has allocated 20 mu (1.3 hectares) of land for a new branch of Meru Monastery鈥檚 printing house. The Buddhist Association of Tibet will put up the millions of yuan needed to build it, with completion targeted by 2020. The authorities plan to train more people to work at the branch to shorten waiting times.
As Tibet becomes more affluent, more and more people are going to be able to afford the 20,000 yuan (US$3,226) or so for a woodblock sutra.
Meanwhile, Chodron is counting the months until her order arrives.
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