Tibetan Opera

01 · Historical Records

Tibetan opera in the Tibet Autonomous Region is the parent body of the art, and it was carried far and wide to the Tibetan-speaking areas of the four provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan by monks who came to study in the great monasteries of central Tibet and by pilgrims; this produced branches such as Huangnan Tibetan opera in Qinghai, Gannan Tibetan opera in Gansu and Seda Tibetan opera in Sichuan. Tibetan opera originated in the religious art of the Tibetans in the 8th century. After the 1980s the Qinghai Tibetan Opera Troupe was established at Huangnan, where it created and performed outstanding plays such as Yile Xiannu, The Envoy of the Tibetan King and The Golden Dawn, which had a considerable influence at home and abroad. Huangnan Tibetan opera is a genre of Tibetan opera in the Huangnan area of Qinghai Province. From the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century the area in which it circulated once covered the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture together with parts of the neighbouring Xunhua Salar Autonomous County and Hualong Hui Autonomous County; at present it is current mainly in the Huangnan area. Huangnan Tibetan opera is an important branch of Amdo Tibetan opera. Its development passed through a stage of narrative singing from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century; a formative stage of performance by three actors in the time of the third Xiari Cang, 1740-1794; a stage of maturity in the time of Jixianjia, 1854-1946; a stage of vigorous development in the time of Duojijia, 1910-1973; and a stage of improvement and renovation since 1980.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Tibetan opera is also performed in the Tibetan settlements of countries such as India, Bhutan and Sikkim. The Tibetan name of the art is Lhamo, meaning 'celestial maiden'. According to legend, Tibetan opera was first performed by the Seven Sisters, and because the content of its repertoire is largely made up of mythological stories drawn from Buddhist scriptures, the name Lhamo came to be used. In the 17th century it separated from monastic religious ritual and gradually formed a naturalistic performance based mainly on singing, combining the basic formulae of singing (chang), chanting (song), dancing (wu), acting (biao), speech (bai) and technique (ji). The vocal style of Tibetan opera is high-pitched and sonorous; basically the tune is set for each individual performer, and every line of song is supported by accompanying human voices. Tibetan opera was originally a plaza (open-air) drama, accompanied by nothing but a drum and a pair of cymbals, with no other instruments. The traditional repertoire of Tibetan opera is said to comprise 'thirteen great plays'. Those most frequently performed are Princess Wencheng, King Nuosang, Langsa Wenbang, Zhuowa Sangmu, Sujinima, Baima Wenba, Dunyue Danzhu, Zhimei Gengdeng and the other works grouped under the name 'the Eight Great Tibetan Operas'. Besides these there are Reqiong Wa (Riqiong Wa), Prince Yuncheng, Jingba Qinbao, Deba Dengba, Suibai Wangqu and the like; most of these plays contain Buddhist content. Costumes in Tibetan opera consist of a single set from beginning to end; performers do not wear makeup and perform mainly in masks. Tibetan opera is divided into white-mask opera and blue-mask opera. The annual Shoton Festival is the time when opera troupes flock to perform, so the Shoton is also called the 'Tibetan opera festival'. New repertoire brought fresh vitality to Huangnan Tibetan opera. In the accompaniment to Yile Xiannu, for example, Tibetan traditional instruments such as the six-stringed lute are combined with a large modern mixed orchestra based mainly on folk instruments; while providing atmospheric music for the interludes, it can also accompany the vocal lines directly, changing the situation in which, in Tibetan opera in Tibet, the drum and cymbals served only to keep the rhythm of dancing and stage movement and very rarely accompanied the singing. The improved sets and stage art of Huangnan Tibetan opera are magnificent and splendid, full of wonder and elegance, and refreshing to the eye and ear. Tibetan opera has a long history and a meticulous set of performing formulae, and it occupies an irreplaceable position in the spiritual life of the Tibetan people. Because it is bound by strict religious and divine rules, Tibetan opera received little influence from Han culture in the course of its development, and both its performing content and its form preserve more of their original appearance; it therefore has extremely high academic value in fields such as the genesis of drama. At the same time, the scripts of Tibetan opera represent a peak of Tibetan literature: they lay weight both on musical cadence and on artistic conception, make extensive use of maxims, proverbs and idioms, and even interweave allegorical stories into the plot, preserving the essence of the language of ancient Tibetan literature. Folk and monastic Tibetan opera troupes have always maintained close ties with the general public. 3. Besides the eight traditional Tibetan operas, the plays they perform also include works such as The Epic of King Gesar and Guowang Guanquebang, which are not found in other Tibetan areas. 4. They preserve Gongbao Duoji Tingfa, an ancient and precious ritual play in a primitive form of drama. 5. Improvised performance is a distinctive feature. These improvised performances both demonstrate the high artistic level of playwrights and actors and do much good in denouncing current abuses and purifying the social environment. 6. Through long artistic practice, successive generations of Huangnan Tibetan opera performers summed up the various role types and complete sets of performing formulae, hand and finger gestures, body movements and steps, and character modelling; they absorbed the figure forms in the murals of Huangnan monasteries and incorporated elements of monastic religious dance, folk dance and movements drawn from Tibetan daily life, forming an artistic style peculiar to this genre.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Tibetan opera is a very large system of theatrical genres. Because the various parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau differ in natural conditions, living customs, cultural traditions and dialect pronunciation, it possesses numerous artistic varieties and schools. A performance is generally divided into three parts: the first, called 'dun', is chiefly the opening presentation of song and dance in honour of the deities; the second, 'xiong', mainly presents the main story of the play; the third is called 'zhaxi', meaning to bless and to welcome auspiciousness. In the course of its transmission, blue-mask opera formed four major schools according to region: Jumelong Tibetan opera, Jongba Tibetan opera, Xiangba Tibetan opera and Jianggar Tibetan opera. 2. In the musical sphere it retains elements of religious music, while also absorbing material from local folk songs and dance music.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera · Tibetan Opera.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

After the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the autonomous region government established the Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetan Opera Troupe on the basis of the former Jumelong troupe, taking on the task of inheriting and developing Tibetan opera. It first collated and performed traditional plays such as Langsa Wenbang, Princess Wencheng and Prince Nuosang, and also created and performed a number of plays on modern subjects; keeping the original open-air character of Tibetan opera as its base, the troupe went on to experiment with theatre and stage art, moving the art from the plaza onto the proscenium stage with lighting, scenery and makeup, and beginning to use orchestral accompaniment. In recent years, however, Tibetan opera, like the opera genres of the inland, has in the midst of change found itself in competition with modern art and forms of entertainment for audiences and for the performance market. The problems are lack of funding, the hard survival of troupes, a break in the succession of artistic talent, the loss of traditional performing skills and weak theoretical research. The crisis facing the development of Tibetan opera in each locality urgently calls for a plan to be drawn up to protect this ancient ethnic-minority genre. Huangnan Tibetan opera has the following characteristics: 1. It has broad popular support and is transmitted by the folk. In recent years, under the impact of modern culture, Huangnan Tibetan opera has also faced the risk of being lost: the number of troupes has fallen, the performers are ageing, the range of performance has narrowed, and rescue is imperative. Renqingjia (official archival record of the associated inheritor): male, Tibetan, born in 1966, a native of Tongren, Qinghai. From 1981 to 1987 Renqingjia studied in succession at the National Normal School of Huangnan Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and at Qinghai College of Education, and also studied the vocal styles and accompaniment of Tibetan opera under famous Tibetan opera masters; from 1987 to 1989 he served as choreographer-director of the Huangnan Prefecture Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe, studying in succession at the Department of Dramatic Literature of Shanghai Theatre Academy and at Beijing Broadcasting Institute; in 2005 he was appointed head of the Qinghai Province Tibetan Opera Troupe and of the Huangnan Prefecture Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe. He has played roles in large-scale Tibetan operas such as The Golden Dawn, has accompanied medium-sized and large Tibetan operas, has devised Tibetan opera vocal styles, and has staged a number of large-scale Tibetan operas such as When the Flowers of Gesang Bloom; he has made comparatively outstanding achievements in inheriting and developing Tibetan opera. He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan opera (Huangnan Tibetan opera), inscribed in the second national-level batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, and a second-class playwright. Duojietai (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Duojietai entered Longwu Monastery to study as a child and graduated from Qinghai Nationalities College in 1971; his representative works include the large-scale Tibetan operas Prince Nuosang, Sujinima, The Envoy of the Tibetan King, The Golden Dawn, Angsa Guniang (The Maiden Angsa) and Nasang Gongma. Male, Tibetan, born in 1948, died in 2013, a native of Tongren, Qinghai. He is a representative inheritor of Tibetan opera (Huangnan Tibetan opera), inscribed in the second national-level batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, and head of the Qinghai Province Tibetan Opera Troupe together with head of the Huangnan Prefecture Ethnic Song and Dance Troupe; first-class playwright and director.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Danda 02-0625
• Cidanduoji 02-0626
• Langjieciren 02-0627
• Ciduo 02-0628
• Ciren 02-0629
• Cirenwangdui 02-0630
• Nimaciren 02-0631
• Gamaciren 02-0632
• Baimei 02-0633
• Renqingjia 02-0634
• Duojietai 02-0635
• Ouluxueba 04-1658
• Lixianjia 04-1659
• Taluo 05-2391
• Cairanghuadan 05-2392
• Duodan
• Biandianwangjiu
• Luosangzhaxi

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Tibetan Opera (Huangnanzangzuzizhi, Qinghai) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Renqingjia · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Duojietai · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗