Tibetan Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The chanting 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 in a monastery.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Mountain songs are called “lalu” in the Weizang region, “lu” in the Khampa region and “le” in the Amdo region; they are songs sung freely in the mountains and wilds. Labour songs are called “lexie” in Tibetan; there are very many kinds of them, and almost every form of labour has its own particular song. Love songs include songs of courtship and tea-of-love songs, while custom songs include wine songs, guessing antiphonal love songs, wedding songs, arrow songs, farewell songs and so on. Gannan Tibetan folk songs are called “le” in Tibetan and are a form of singing current in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province. The words are both handed down from the past and newly composed, and are commonly sung by fitting new words to old tunes; the lines often carry a strong mythological colouring. The melodies vary very little, and no instrumental accompaniment is used in singing. There are two forms of performance, solo singing and choral singing by two or more people, and solo predominates; in addition there is an entertaining question-and-answer manner of singing. Taken as a whole, Gannan Tibetan folk songs display a national character, a popular character and a recreative character, and are warmly welcomed by a great many farmers and herdsmen. “Layi” are love songs sung while herding, on the road, hunting and working in the fields; “la” means “hillside” and “yi” means “song”. They are used above all to express the love of young men and women; the music is ardent and unrestrained, the pitch high and far-reaching yet soft and delicate, and they have a style of their own within Gannan Tibetan folk songs. Wine songs are called “qiangle” in Tibetan and are generally sung at the new year and festivals, when a new house is built and on happy occasions; their rhythm is free and they are full of warmth, expressing above all joy and blessing. Gannan Tibetan folk songs are widely current in the seven counties and one city of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; their representative works include the Toast Song and A Xiang Laolao.
The Toast Song
Gannan Tibetan folk songs are widely current in the seven counties and one city of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; their representative works include the Toast Song and A Xiang Laolao.
A Xiang Laolao
Gannan Tibetan folk songs are widely current in the seven counties and one city of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; their representative works include the Toast Song and A Xiang Laolao.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Tibetan folk songs are the principal form of folk music in Tibetan areas, and may be divided into types such as mountain songs (herding songs), labour songs, love songs, custom songs and chanting tunes. Gannan Tibetan folk songs may be divided into praise songs, sorrow songs, antiphonal songs, auspicious songs and the like; when sung in the herding areas they tend to show a style that is free, expansive, bold and high, while in the herding areas they more often display the qualities of delicacy, liveliness and fluency. Gannan Tibetan folk songs concentrate and reflect the life customs, the primitive religious belief and the aesthetic ideas of the local people, and are important reference material for research in folklore, sociology, ethnology and musicology.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Their words and melodies are not transmitted in writing but are handed down by artists from mouth to heart. At present, because society has advanced and living standards have risen, most of the younger generation are unwilling to take up and learn folk art, so that the transmission of Gannan Tibetan folk songs has run into a serious crisis; protection measures need urgently to be strengthened in order to guarantee that this fine ethnic art is passed on smoothly. Huairgong (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, Tibetan, born in June 1949, a native of Maqu County, Gansu Province. His plucked-and-sung folk songs not only display traditional Tibetan culture but also incorporate the new fashions of society, new information and new changes; he has composed more than seventy new folk songs and newly written fourteen sets of words. The Tibetan-language recordings of his plucked-and-sung performances that he has published include Selected Songs of Part of Master Gongtang and the Huairgong Special Collection, and the VCDs and DVDs he has published in collaboration with others include Bangjin Meiduo and The Enchanting Moon. In the Tibetan areas of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Tibet he enjoys the reputation of “father of Amdo aling plucked-and-sung singing” and “king of plucked-and-sung singing”. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Tibetan folk songs (Gannan Tibetan folk songs).
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Jianjun 03-0871
- Hua Ergong 03-0872
- Dawazhandou 03-0873
- Jiangbaqizha 05-2122
- Wudefen 05-2123
- Majinlian
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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