Tibetan Folk Legends
01 · Historical Records
The Nianbaoyuze legend arose from the worship of Mount Nianbaoyuze by the Tibetan forebears of the Golog region of Qinghai. It is said that a hunter from the Kham region saved the son of the mountain deity at the Lake Emucuo area and shot the demon black yak, married the deity's youngest daughter, and begot three sons, Angqianben, Ashiqiangben and Banmaben, whose descendants multiplied into the Three Golog tribes. The legend was thereafter handed down by word of mouth for generations in the Amdo region and became an important narrative of the origin of the Golog Tibetan tribes.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Nianbaoyuze legend is a series of legends taking as their subject the emergence and development of the three great tribes that historically lived in the Golog region of Qinghai, called for short the “Three Golog”, and circulates mainly in Golog of Qinghai and the neighbouring Tibetan areas of Aba in Sichuan and Gannan in Gansu and Yushu, Hainan and Huangnan in Qinghai. Nianbaoyuze, also called Nianbaoyeshize and Golog mountain, meaning in Tibetan “the holy turquoise peak”, lies within Jiuzhi county and is a famous peak of the south-eastern section of the Bayan Har range, its main peak 5,369 metres above sea level and forty kilometres from Zhiqingduoduo town of Jiuzhi county; it is said to be the birthplace of the Three Golog. The Nianbaoyuze legend is closely bound up with the history of the development of the Three Golog and is widely current and greatly influential throughout the Amdo region. It is said that long ago a young, brave and matchlessly skilled Tibetan hunter from the Kham region settled in the Lake Emucuo area. One day he saved from the beak of a black vulture a small white snake—the only son of the deity of Mount Nianbaoyuze—and at the deity's invitation shot the demon black yak that had forcibly seized the divine mountain. To repay the hunter, the deity of Nianbaoyuze gave him his youngest daughter in marriage, and she bore three sons, Angqianben, Ashiqiangben and Banmaben, all diligent, simple, brave and clever. The descendants of the three sons multiplied and became today's Three Golog tribes. While its story theme and content remain stable and unchanged, the Nianbaoyuze myth and legend has rich and varied forms of expression—oral legend, Tibetan opera performance, folk sung narration and written records (the Golog Genealogy)—each showing different characteristics. In recent years, with the vigorous development of tourism and the year-on-year increase of visitors at home and abroad, the legend has spread accordingly to various places. The Nianbaoyuze legend interprets the origin and development history of the Golog Tibetan tribes; its episodes are intricate and vivid, its structure rigorous and its artistic means distinctive, and in the course of transmission and circulation narrative structures of different schools and styles have formed, providing important reference for the study of mythology and folk literature.
The Hunter Saves the Small White Snake and Shoots the Demon Black Yak
The legend of the Kham hunter saving the mountain deity's son at Lake Emucuo and shooting the demon that had seized the divine mountain.
The Mountain Deity Gives His Daughter in Marriage and Three Sons Multiply into the Three Golog
The legend of the deity of Nianbaoyuze giving his daughter in marriage, bearing three sons such as Angqianben and multiplying into the Three Golog tribes.
The Written Record of the Golog Genealogy
The preservation of the Nianbaoyuze legend in written recorded form.
The Tibetan Opera Nianbaoyuze and the New Year Worship
The performance of Nianbaoyuze by Golog Tibetan opera troupes and the custom of the local people going to worship at the New Year.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
On festivals and New Year the local people go to worship there.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Nianbaoyuze legend deifies Mount Nianbaoyuze as a mountain deity and makes him the ancestral deity of the Three Golog and the tutelary deity of the tribes. The legend is handed down from generation to generation, its content reaching all of Golog prefecture and the surrounding Tibetan areas of settlement; it has a deep popular base, its clearly recorded lineage of transmission already six generations, and at present more than seventy folk artists sing the legend, there are two Tibetan opera troupes performing the Nianbaoyuze legend in Golog prefecture with more than a hundred actors, and its audience in Golog and the surrounding area reaches more than thirty thousand. It expresses the beautiful wish of suppressing evil and promoting good, has a broad cohesive force and influence on Golog Tibetan society, and has relatively high historical, social, cultural and artistic value.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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