Jianzha Dadunyan
01 · Historical Records
The use of the bow and arrow originated in the hunting production of primitive society. In 841 CE, Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje of the Tibetan Empire assassinated Langdarma, the last tsenpo (king), and then fled to Qinghai for refuge; he hid and enshrined the bow and arrow used in the assassination at Luoduojiecha on the south bank of the Yellow River in Jianzha County, and piled stones to build a "benkang" shrine known as the "Hidden Bow Temple." From the eleventh century onward, the related regions saw an end to warfare and strife; during the Ming and Qing dynasties, antagonistic archery evolved into a competitive and recreational folk activity, which later developed further into a comprehensive, group-based popular event that has been transmitted to the present day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
"Dadun" is a Tibetan word meaning a feast of the divine arrows, an archery festival, or an archery celebration. In the era of the Tibetan Empire, archery was a skill every Tibetan man had to master; the small bows made from yak horn had extremely strong elasticity. On the Tang-Tibet frontier, while awaiting the tsenpo's orders to advance or retreat, the people regularly practiced martial skills, made arrows and trained in archery, and organized group contests, giving the activity a marked military character. The heroic epic "The Story of King Gesar" preserves these historical memories. Later generations, in memory of this event, gradually made the "Dadun" activity prevalent in Jianzha and the surrounding Hualong and Zhuocang areas. The Dadun feast takes competitive archery and sung dialogue as its vehicles, combining archery as sport, song and dance with drinking songs, the storytelling arts of the banquet table, ethnic costume, fine wine and food, folk etiquette, and traditional ritual into one. In its form of expression it comprises three major parts: intervillage competitive archery, individual family banquets, and collective feasts. It is a folk competitive event of distinctive character and also a recreational festival custom with a strong highland flavor, carrying people's yearning for and pursuit of peace and friendship. The event follows a team match-win system in which home and visiting sides take turns, with multiple rounds of competition and scoring by the height at which the arrow strikes the target. In the earlier stage the "Daze" archery competition is held, lasting from a dozen or so days to several dozen days; finally the Dadun feast is held, generally lasting four to five days. On the first day each side makes its own preparations. On the second day village A travels to village B, staying overnight in village B with a banquet held through the night; on the morning of the third day archery takes place in village B. On the fourth day village B returns the visit to village A, with archery in the afternoon and a banquet with song and dance in the evening. On the morning of the fifth day one more round of archery is held in village A, and then the event ends. The Jianzha Dadun feast has distinctive features. First, competition and entertainment are combined. Using the arrow as a medium and archery as a way of making friends, the competitors first hold the intervillage archery contest; the archers then invite their opponents to their homes and entertain them warmly with local food and drink, before gathering at the "Manikang" (mani prayer hall) for a collective banquet, expressing the unity and harmony of the two villages. Second, it has a popular character. The banquet is ceremonious and refined, including the opening of the gates, greetings on taking one's seat, toasting with songs, folk-song duets, eulogistic speeches, Zerou dance performances, prayers for auspicious fortune, and late-night "Layi" love songs; most of these involve the participation of all the villagers. Third, the timing is flexible: it is generally held in the winter slack season, with the date settled by consultation between the two villages. Fourth, there is a division of labor between men and women: the women of the host team receive the visiting team with song and dance, while the men are responsible for laying out the banquet, toasting, and pouring tea. Because the Jianzha Dadun feast has a strongly composite cultural character, its repeated holding effectively promotes the practice and transmission of the various traditional cultural elements it contains — ethnic language, folk literature, rites and rituals, storytelling and song-and-dance arts, and bow and arrow making skills are all protected within this folk activity; at the same time it also promotes unity among local communities and friendly exchange between regions.
The preliminary archery contests
Before the feast, archery contests run round after round for a dozen days or several tens of days, with crowds around the target ground.
The five-day rotation of matches
The feast lasts four or five days, with the host village visiting, shooting and banqueting in turn before a final round.
Team scoring over several rounds
Home and away turns and several rounds decide by hit height, measuring the whole village's steadiness rather than any one family's skill.
Host-family banquets and the mani hall banquet
Beyond village contests, archers are hosted in the rival's home before both sides close matters at the shared banquet in the mani hall.
Zerou performance and late-night la yi singing
Greeting, seating, toasts, duets, praise speeches, zerou dancing and blessings follow in order, with late-night la yi singing delaying the parting.
The hall of the hidden bow
The shrine at Luoduojiezha preserves the bow taken to Qinghai after the assassination of the last Tibetan king, giving archery a memorial layer.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Dadun feast is a comprehensive regional folk activity found mainly in Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province; the rural areas of the county have long had the customs of archery and of holding Dadun feasts, and its influence radiates to the surrounding areas.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Dadun feast survives on the agreement between two villages to host it in turn each year; where there is a competition, there are archers, drinking-song singers, and makers of bows and arrows, and thus reason to gather people and implements year after year. Archery skill and drinking songs are used repeatedly in the same setting, so the scattered crafts of ordinary days gain a fixed practice ground; the measure of bowstring, arrow shaft, and tipsiness is honed out feast by feast.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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