Cairanghuadan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1990 he entered the branch of the Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy located at Arao Monastery in Mayu, where he studied under the Living Buddha Qiuni and began to learn Gesar horseback Tibetan opera. Within the regional tradition and school record of Tibetan Opera in Guoluozangzuzizhi, Qinghai: Horseback Tibetan opera was founded at Longen monastery in Gande county, Golog prefecture, and circulates mainly within Golog, spreading from the early 1990s to the neighbouring Tibetan areas of Gannan, Ganzi, Aba and Yushu; the Golog prefecture cultural centre (Golog Prefecture Intangible Cultural Heritage Transmission and Protection Centre) is responsible for the project's protection. Horseback Tibetan opera was founded at Longen monastery in Gande county, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai; it circulated mainly within Golog and, from the early 1990s, gradually spread to the neighbouring Tibetan areas of Gannan, Ganzi, Aba and Yushu. This dramatic form originated at the horse races of the Golog tribes in the mid-seventeenth century, when, to better satisfy the audience's appreciation and present the plot more perfectly, horsemanship was suitably added to the performance, so that horseback Tibetan opera developed and flourished in the Golog region. Drawing on local materials, it originated at the tribal horse races of the mid-seventeenth century, and horsemanship was added to present the plot more fully, gradually becoming a distinctive form of Tibetan opera.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Tibetan, born in October 1972 in Jiuzhi County, Qinghai Province. In 2003 he became head of the Tibetan opera troupe of Arao Monastery. He instructed a wide circle of Tibetan opera enthusiasts, raised funds to purchase costumes and props of every kind for the troupe, and rescued a large number of documentary materials. In 2009 he was engaged as a guest research fellow of the Gesar Research Centre of Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. In 2014 he was elected a standing council member of the Qinghai Gesar Society and a council member of the Qinghai Tibetan Studies Association. Within the documented technical tradition of Tibetan Opera in Guoluozangzuzizhi, Qinghai: Horseback Tibetan opera is a unique genre created on the basis of Tibetan opera; it takes the grassland as its background and the horse's back as its stage, always re-enacting heroic stories on horseback. It fuses Tibetan classical literature, music, dance, art and horsemanship, re-presenting the historical scenes and plot of the play through narrative-singing, dance and lifelike horsemanship. To this day there are six horseback Tibetan opera troupes within Golog prefecture. Its performance on the grassland with the horse's back as its stage lets the plot unfold in real steppe space; it is mostly staged together with horse races and tribal festivals, the coordination of actors and horses being the genre's most distinctive mark. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Geser Epic Repertory (Performed on Horseback)": Horseback Tibetan opera takes the Geser epic as its main subject, re-enacting on the steppe and on horseback the heroic stories of Geser and his generals, combining narrative-singing, dance and horsemanship.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of Tibetan Opera (Qinghai Horseback Tibetan Opera), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 2010 the Department of Culture, Press and Publication of Qinghai Province conferred on him the title of Provincial-Level Representative Bearer of Traditional Tibetan Opera (Qinghai Horseback Tibetan Opera), a Typical Representative Bearer of a Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Project.

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. Cairanghuadan · National Representative Bearer Archive