Zorig Chusum-13th Arts and Crafts
Zorig Chusum (བཟོ་རིག་བཅུ་གསུམ) is a classification of arts, crafts, and technological skills into thirteen different domains, which is well known in Bhutan. The thirteen categories include (1) calligraphy or Rizzo, (2) painting or lhazo, (3) carving or parzo (སྤར་བཟོ་), (4) clay sculpture or jinzo (འཇིམ་བཟོ་), (5) metal casting or lugzo (བླུག་བཟོ་), (6) silver and gold smithery or troezo (སྤྲོས་བཟོ་), (7) needle work or tshemzo (ཚེམ་བཟོ་), (8) wood work/ carpentry or shingzo (ཤིང་བཟོ་), (9) textile production or thagzo (ཐགས་བཟོ་), (10) paper making or delzo (འདལ་བཟོ་), (11) bamboo craft or tsharzo (ཚར་བཟོ་), (12) black smithery or garzo (མགར་བཟོ་), and (13) masonry or dozo (རྡོ་བཟོ་). In this classification, carpentry and woodturning are put together under woodwork whereas, in another enumeration, black smithery and gold and silver smithery are treated as one art of smithery and woodturning (ཤག་བཟོ་) and carpentry enumerated as different arts or crafts.
Yigzo (ཡིག་བཟོ་) or calligraphy includes the art of writing in different scripts. It is carried out mostly by monastic scribes and priests who create books for regular use or make ornamental books with artistic calligraphy. Associated with calligraphy are also other crafts such as ink making and pen making.
Lhazo (ལྷ་བཟོ་) or fine art is practiced as high culture by artists who are trained in the field. Buddhist figures and themes dominate the content of fine art, thus giving it the name lhazo or art of divine beings. The painters learn iconographic mensuration and line drawings and gradually go on to create very complex images of deities and Buddhas. They also learn how to prepare and use pigments, paint brushes, and canvas.
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