Gonggarenzeng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Gonggarenzeng, Male, Tibetan, from Tibet, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Tibetan Tianwenlisuan (Ⅹ-121). The tradition is documented in Tibet. Within the regional tradition and school record of Tibetan Tianwenlisuan in Tibet: What supports this discipline today is a chain extending from institutions to the general populace: the Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation Research Institute of the Hospital of Tibetan Medicine of the Tibet Autonomous Region calculates and compiles the Tibetan calendar each year, holding the authoritative version of the calendar. The same body of computational methods is also spread downward through two channels—schools for farmers and herders and institutions of higher learning. In addition to training more than five hundred farmer and herder students, Gongga Renzeng taught successively at the Tibetan Medical College of Tibet and Tibet University, passing on the hands-on skills of fixing new moons, setting intercalary months, and computing eclipse limits to learners at different levels. The circulation of finished calendars and weather almanacs extends beyond the autonomous region; Tibetans in the Tibetan areas of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan, as well as in Bhutan, India, and Nepal, still rely on them to arrange farming and herding activities and matters of auspiciousness and avoidance. In the traditional Tibetan disciplines, this branch of learning falls under calculation, one of the "Ten Sciences," standing alongside medicine and the arts among others, and its origins can be traced back more than two thousand years. The key to bringing scattered records of celestial observations into a systematic body of knowledge was the Mentsekhang, the specialized academy of the former Tibetan local government. Gongga Renzeng entered the Mentsekhang in 1952 to study calendrical calculation, and over the following decades became a mainstay of the compilation of the Tibetan calendar; when the Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation Society was founded in Lhasa in 1981, he served as deputy secretary-general and, as one of the chief compilers, took part in compiling the Comprehensive Collection of Tibetan Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation. During that period he wrote the essay "A Preliminary Discussion of the Relationship Between Tibetan Medicine and Astronomy-Calendrical Calculation, Its Development, and the Scientific Nature of Astronomy-Calendrical Calculation," which brought the relationship between the paths of medicine and calendrical science plainly into view.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Tibetan, born in February 1942, a native of Doilungdeqen County (now Doilungdeqen District of Lhasa), Tibet Autonomous Region. His family had practised astronomy and calendrical calculation for generations, and he is a renowned calendrical scholar and calendar-compilation expert at the Institute of Tibetan Medicine, Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation of the Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetan Hospital. In 1952 he went to Menzikang to study astronomy and calendrical calculation, and in 1981, when the Lhasa Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation Society was founded, he served as its deputy secretary-general. He was one of the principal authors of the book A Compendium of Tibetan Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation, and has published papers including 'A Brief Discussion of the Relationship between Tibetan Medicine and Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation, Its Development, and the Scientific Nature of Astronomy and Calendrical Calculation'. Within the documented technical tradition of Tibetan Tianwenlisuan in Tibet: Tibetan astronomy and calendrical calculation is an important component of the "Ten Sciences" culture of the Tibetan people; it is widely practiced in Tibetan areas and has a history of more than two thousand years to date. Tibetan astronomy and calendrical calculation is a distinctive discipline composed of many branches, including primitive astronomy and calendrical calculation, five-element divination, Kalachakra calendrical calculation, the Han calendar as embodied in the Shixian calendar, divination by sound, and geomancy. Its related knowledge and practice include not only the calculation of the motions of the five major planets, the setting of intercalary months and duplicated or deficient days, and the prediction of solar and lunar eclipses, but also short-, medium-, and long-range weather forecasting, and—on the principles of astronomy and calendrical calculation—the calculation of the appropriate timing for farming and herding in different places, as well as phenological signs, solar terms, and the cycles of change in the human pulse. Tibetan astronomy and calendrical calculation is a precious treasure created by the Tibetan people through long practice; for thousands of years it has played a guiding role in the production and daily life of the Tibetan people. The Tibetan calendar has distinctive characteristics; it stands apart among all the calendars of the world and occupies a very important position. Tibetan weather and calendar almanacs compiled on the principles of Tibetan astronomy and calendrical calculation still play an important role today in guiding agricultural and pastoral production and forecasting the weather; they circulate in the Tibetan areas of Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces and in neighboring countries such as Bhutan, India, and Nepal, and are warmly welcomed by the broad masses of farmers and herders. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Computing the new moons and intercalary months": The most laborious foundation: the new moons are back-computed from planetary and solar-lunar motions to settle leap months and duplicated or missing days, fixing the length of the year. "Forecasting eclipses of sun and moon": Conjunctions and oppositions are computed so that the presence, timing and magnitude of eclipses can be forecast, the most valued service of the almanac. "Choosing auspicious days for farming and herding": Phenological and pulse cycles decide which days suit ploughing, herding, building or travel, with matching taboos, making the almanac a year-round working guide. "Five-phase divination and the Kalachakra system": Primeval calendar reckoning, five-phase divination, the Kalachakra system, the Chinese calendrical rules, omen interpretation and geomancy coexist as distinct branches of one discipline.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of Tibetan astronomy and calendrical calculation, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He has received more than ten awards at the autonomous-region level and was named an outstanding teacher for 2006-2007 by the autonomous-region Tibetan Hospital. He has trained more than five hundred farmer and herder students and has taught at the Tibet Tibetan Medical College and Tibet University.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Gonggarenzeng · National Representative Bearer Archive