Half-stereo soft masks

These masks are usually made of cloth or cloth layers stuffed with cotton wool or animal hair. For example, villager Chang Si, an elderly character in a Tibetan opera, wears a mask made of a cloth bag stuffed with a thin layer of cotton wool and animal hair, with parts around the mouth and eyes cut hollow or embedded according to the shape of the organs, and the part at the nose made stereo, and stitched eyebrows and mustache made of yak tail hair. In another example, the old lady Gamobinzhen’s mask in “Padma Obar”wears a half-stereo false face completely compressed and molded with a piece of leather, with the parts at mouth and eyes engraved hollow according to the shape, and the part at the nose compressed to a slightly protuberant shape, and hair and beard made of fur cut from the upper and lower edges of the leather.

The mask of an old lady, Gamobinzhen

The mask of the male immortal in Chamdo Tibetan opera is a halfstereo false mask made by compressing and sewing a piece of leather.

like half a stretched upturned leather bag, with the parts at the mouth and eyes cut hollow according to the shape, and the parts at eyebrows, beard, and nose sewn and molded to make it feel some stereo.

There are examples of only a few half-stereo soft masks. However, they have quite distinctive characteristics. They originated from primitive sacrificial ceremonies and folk art, and then gradually used in operas to represent characters’ personalities.

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