Dawazhandou

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Dawazhandou, Male, Unspecified, from Yushuzangzuzizhi, Qinghai, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Tibetan Folk Songs (Ⅱ-115). The tradition is documented in Yushuzangzuzizhi, Qinghai. Within the regional tradition and school record of Tibetan Folk Songs in Yushuzangzuzizhi, Qinghai: Tibetan folk songs are the principal form of folk music in Tibetan areas; they can be divided into types such as mountain songs (herding songs), work songs, love songs, custom songs and scripture-recitation tunes. Yushu folk songs are the crystallisation of the wisdom and the feelings of the Yushu Tibetan people; they touch on such matters as the language, script and life customs of the local Tibetans, and are precious material for the study of the different social formations of Tibetan society. The scripture-recitation tune, also called the "six-syllable mantra song", is a type of song sung by Buddhist believers when worshipping the Buddha and the other deities at monasteries.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Tibetan, born in April 1979, a native of Qumalai County, Qinghai Province. He currently serves as head of the Qumalai County Song and Dance Troupe. Influenced by his family, he loved Yushu folk songs from childhood; at the age of six he began learning songs such as Niangcuo Niangre, Niangcuo Duoshu Lilac, and Sanisuoka from his grandfather Duojie Zhandou, and later learned to sing Dongpu Dawa Zhuga from elderly folk artists, collating and notating its score. His rendition of Dongpu Dawa Zhuga, with its distinctive vocal style and markedly different metre, has left a deep impression on listeners. He has long devoted himself to the performance of Yushu folk songs, the collection of materials, and the training of successors. Among the students he has taught, Zhou Jiangcai, Dangzheng Duojie, and others have become well-known Yushu folk singers. Within the documented technical tradition of Tibetan Folk Songs in Yushuzangzuzizhi, Qinghai: Mountain songs are called "Lalu" in the Weizang region, "Lu" in the Kham region and "Le" in the Amdo region; they are songs sung freely in the mountains and fields. Work songs are called "Le Xie" in Tibetan; there are very many kinds of them, and almost every type of labour has its own set song. Love songs include love songs proper and tea-love songs, while custom songs include drinking songs, love-guessing antiphonal songs, wedding songs, arrow songs and farewell songs. Yushu folk songs have a long history and are current throughout every county, township and village of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Yushu folk songs in the traditional sense consist of "Le", "Layi", "Chuangle", "Jimo", "Qiongle", "Junle", "Yola", together with wedding tunes, welcoming tunes, milking tunes and the like. Among them "Qiongle" is the drinking song, "Junle" the wall-tamping song and "Yola" the harvest and threshing-floor song; "Le" includes song forms such as the opening song, the call song, the display song and the praise song, its content being richly inclusive, able to take in everything under heaven and among mankind; "Lale" are the mountain songs, generally named after a place or a tribe, with singing the scenery of one's home town and voicing one's personal feelings as their main content; "Layi" are the love songs, centred on the singing of love between men and women, but they may not be sung in front of relatives or of opposite-sex blood relations; "Chuangle" chiefly recount the experiences of roving free spirits drifting from place to place, and also touch on men's and women's love, longing and sorrow; "Jimo" are the divination love songs with which young men and young women divine their love affairs. These different kinds of Yushu folk songs, though widely differing in style and each excelling in its own way, all share the characteristics of a broad range and a far-reaching artistic conception. Yushu folk songs may be sung by one person alone, or sung in antiphonal exchange between two. Their structure is generally in three sections, the first and second using imagery by analogy and the third stating the theme; this is the basic expressive device of Yushu folk songs. "Le" and "Layi" are in four-line three-section or three-line three-section form, and some run to five, six or seven lines, each line having seven or eight characters. "Jimo" is in four-line one-section form, each line having six characters, with an even rhythm and equal metrical steps. Representative works of Yushu folk songs include "Geji Zasongzhang" and "Junse Dawa Zhuoga". Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Le songs": The richest in content of the categories of Yushu folk song, including song forms such as the opening song, the call song, the display song and the praise song, able to take in everything under heaven and among mankind. "Layi love songs": Centred on the singing of love between men and women, but they may not be sung in front of relatives or of opposite-sex blood relations. "Lale mountain songs": Generally named after a place or a tribe, with singing the scenery of one's home town and voicing one's personal feelings as their main content. "Qiongle drinking songs": One of the component parts of traditional Yushu folk song, used in drinking occasions.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Tibetan Folk Songs (Yushu Folk Songs), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He has mastered a rich body of Yushu folk song styles and techniques and has many times taken part in folk song competitions within and beyond the province, winning awards.

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. Dawazhandou · National Representative Bearer Archive