Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Guo Honglei) news: "I can hardly believe that at this moment, I am actually connected with the beautiful Kizil murals and gourd art. What has made me so captivated and integrated my life with them to the point where we are almost inseparable?" Ma Jianghong often reflects on her 38 years of involvement with gourd carving with words from her own essays. Despite having another work, "Kizil Grottoes," selected by the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum and China National Arts and Crafts Museum in mid-March of 2025, she always feels that she is still a budding seed on the path of art.

In 1983, when Ma Jianghong was 12 years old, she saw gourd pyrograph for the first time at a market. The exquisite patterns and vibrant colors were "branded" onto her heart. "When I got home, I thought about trying to do pyrography on a three-ply board," Ma Jianghong reminisced.

Photo shows Ma Jianghong demonstrates her gourd carving skills at the 18th Xinjiang Winter Tourism Industry Trade Expo. (Photo offered by Ma Jianghong)

At the age of 16, Ma Jianghong already had her own creations.

In 1989, Ma Jianghong was admitted to the Xinjiang Normal University, majoring in Arts and Crafts. During university, she studied while also working part-time to earn her tuition fees. Despite her limited financial means at the time, she spent 600 yuan (about 82 U.S. dollars) to buy her first gourd.

As a native of Xinjiang, Ma Jianghong chose twelve Muqams as the subject for her first carvings. The wall of the gourd was only four millimeters thick, completely different in texture and hardness from the three-ply board she had practiced on. After numerous practices, she finally dared to cut into the gourd. She tested the force with each cut, and several times accidentally pierced her thumbnail. "At that time, I had only one thought in mind: I would rather injure my hand than damage the gourd," Ma Jianghong said.

During a subsequent internship, what Ma Jianghong saw and heard at Dunhuang and the Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves helped her find a direction she was willing to devote her life to. "The elegance of the Flying Apsaras is astonishing, the murals of the Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves date back 200 years earlier. These precious cultural heritages are facing weathering and peeling. I want to engrave the lost murals onto gourds," Ma Jianghong said.

Ma Jianghong spent six months at the Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves. "The murals are square, and when you engrave them onto a round gourd, you can't exaggerate or distort them. You also need to understand the stories behind the murals, what expressions the characters have, and speculate on why they have those expressions..." Ma Jianghong said. The sizes of the gourds often greatly differ from the sizes of the murals, and sometimes it takes as many as 30 to 40 drafts to create a single carving sketch.

The murals of Cave 205 in the Kizil Grottoes were "recreated" by Ma Jianghong on seven gourds, which quickly attracted the attention of many master gourd carvers. Afterward, in order to further refine her skills, Ma Jianghong successively went to the Palace Museum in China’s Beijing and the Yangzhou Jade Carving Factory to learn new techniques and knowledge such as mounting and framing calligraphy and paintings, restoring porcelain, brick carving, and jade carving.