ice sculptor Muujii Muuji

Muujii Muuji

Muujii Muuji is a Mongolian ice sculptor who I first met on my second trip to China. I saw him again on my third trip, when we were both judges for a competition. Most recently, I ran into some of his ice art in Germany, while I was visiting Eiswelt Elstal.

Muuji (also known as Munk Erdene Tsagaan) is seemingly always in a great mood, in my experience at least. He also speaks at least 3 languages: his native language, Mandarin, and English. (When he read this, he informed me that he also speaks Russian 😆) At any rate, when I couldn’t find a translator, I would frequently look to him to understand wth was going on during my last two trips to China 🤪 HOWEVER, when we were in Macau, I was better off with the Portuguese, since it’s close to Spanish. So there! 😁

I should be adding more pics of Muujii’s ice art when I start pulling pix from my second trip to China. He was doing a lot of sculpting at the event we were at.

Muujii in front of a large chameleon ice sculpture
dramatic ice sculpture of cheetahs and their handler, sculpted on a frozen lake
faerie scene ice sculpture called “Spring Awakening"
"Home nature" ice suite by Munkh-Erdene Tsagaan, Uugantsetseg Enkhtaivan at ICEHOTEL 33; Photo by Asaf Kliger
a remarkable reverse relief sculpture of a wizard INSIDE a large ice block at Eiswelt Elstal
large faerie scene ice sculpture, "Elves in the Magic Realm," by Muujii Muuji and Baatar Dorjnamjil
Muujii Muuji uses a large chisel to quickly sculpt ice
Muujii Muuji works on large color ice sculpture of a Shaolin monk
a large ice sculpture of Prince Valiant in battle at Eiswelt Elstal. By Muujii Muuji and Baatar Dorjnamjil
Muujii Muuji and Uuganaa Enkh work on a large ice sculpture
Muujii at work on a seahorse at a large ice display in Germany
"Winter Snake": kind of like if there was a giant version of a cobra that lived in the Arctic
closeup of a remarkable reverse relief sculpture of a wizard INSIDE a large ice block at Eiswelt Elstal

When I first met Muujii Muuji, he was working on sculptures for the large ice displays that surrounded the competition that I was judging. I was impressed with his ice sculpting, but not as impressed as I would be later!

When I went into Eiswelt Elstal (this one links to the the ice display’s website), I was immediately struck by the wizard sculpture that you see in the gallery. He’d created a spectacular reverse relief wizard ice sculpture inside of one of the large clear ice blocks that are used at the display. I couldn’t get better pics with my phone, unfortunately, but this sculpture was fantastic and I kept going back to it.

ice sculpting judge Muujii Muuji goofs around with the Golden Egg (the top prize) in front of the winning ice sculpture
an ice sculpted faerie scene by Muujii Muuji at the Sendi Snow Park in Nantong, China

I spent a little time with Muujii when we were judges at an ice sculpting competition in Nantong, China. Prior to my arrival however, it seemed that he was busy creating ice art for the ice and snow park that housed the competition. Some of his ice art is above (the faerie scene). At left though, he goofs around with the top prize at the event, the Golden Egg.

With the exception of a few pictures that I took at Eiswelt Elstal and in China, the pictures here are courtesy of Muujii Muuji and are used with permission. (The icesculptingsecrets.com watermark on some isn’t a claim of ownership.)

More info and pics on the way!