Denggaganzhou
01 · Historical Records
"Deng Gagan" is Tibetan and means "panda dance". The Baima Tibetans have lived for generations in the Minshan canyon region on the Sichuan-Gansu border; they revere animals such as the bear and the giant panda and hold that all things have a spirit, and the dancers who wear animal skulls on their heads and mimic beasts as they dance are the remote ancestor form of this ritual dance. The panda dance evolved out of that beast-mimicry dancing with animal skulls worn on the head into a beast-mimicry dance that amuses the gods with dancing and instructs through dancing, and it retains symbols of primitive nature worship and of Bon culture.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
"Deng Gagan" is Tibetan for "panda dance". It is a traditional ritual dance originating in Jiuzhaigou County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and it is also circulated among Baima Tibetan villages in Wen County, Longnan City, Gansu Province and in Pingwu County, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province. It is transmitted mainly within families: inheritors begin learning the dance from their elders as small children, and may put on the panda mask to give formal performances only at the age of fifteen. The performance form of Deng Gagan is based mainly on paired dancing by two people, accompanied by a bamboo trumpet, drums and cymbals, and its basic rhythmic pattern is duple metre. The dance steps build on the imitation of the giant panda's postures and movements and subject them to anthropomorphising exaggeration and transformation; the results are endearing and very amusing. The most representative dance movements are "panda eating bamboo", "panda drinking water", "panda climbing a tree", "panda building a nest" and "pandas at play", among others. Improvised passages can also be inserted into the course of the dance, and the performers banter and interact with the onlookers; this gives the dance a strong flavour of daily life, and its details display the traditional artistic characteristics of the borderland between Longnan in Gansu and northwestern Sichuan. Deng Gagan is an instructive dance embodying nature worship as well as a beast-mimicry dance that amuses the gods through dancing; to a large extent it preserves the original form of dancing in imitation of beasts with animal skulls worn on the head. The totemic figures that appear in ritual ceremonies are among the more important symbols of Bon culture. In the Baima Tibetan areas where Bon is still practised today, Deng Gagan not only displays the three-dimensional modelling art and aesthetic consciousness of remote ancestors but also serves as a vehicle for the belief in the union of heaven and humanity, and it is a living relic of the nature worship that holds that all things have a spirit.
Eating bamboo, drinking, climbing
The signature movements, animal postures exaggerated and humanised for comic effect, alongside building the den and playful tumbling.
Horn, drum and cymbals in duple time
The accompanying ensemble of long horn, drum and cymbals in a basic duple metre for the principal duet.
Paired dance and improvised teasing
Beyond the set movements the dancers improvise with the onlookers, giving the dance the everyday flavour of the Gansu-Sichuan borderland.
The panda mask and family transmission
The mask is worn only by family members who have reached fifteen and learned the dance from their elders within the household.
Totemic beast figures in Bon ritual
In the Bon-practising Baima villages the totemic figures of the rites mark the dance as a living survival of animist nature worship.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The panda dance has its core area of circulation in Jiuzhaigou County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and it is also inherited among Baima Tibetan villages around Tielou Township in Wen County, Longnan City, Gansu Province and around Baima Township in Pingwu County, Mianyang City, Sichuan Province. The dance is transmitted mainly within families; inheritors learn it from their elders from childhood, and only at fifteen may they put on the panda mask to perform formally. The form of the masks and the details of the dance sections vary from one village to another.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Deng Gagan is a vivid portrayal of the Baima Tibetans' harmonious coexistence with nature over a thousand years and of their esteem for the ideal of the "union of heaven and humanity". It plays a positive and practical part in protecting and maintaining the local natural environment and in building a harmonious society, and it has fairly high reference value for research into the historical origins, development and evolution of the Baima Tibetans as well as their culture and beliefs.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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