Buddhist Music
01 · Historical Records
Buddhism was introduced into China around the reign of Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han; Buddhist music from India and the Western Regions, over its long course of development, absorbed artistic elements of Chinese folk music and thereby took on a distinctive character, becoming an important component of Chinese Buddhist culture.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Buddhist music is the music used by Buddhist monasteries in various Dharma-service activities and festival celebrations. It contains both Chinese national tunes and musical tunes of the minority peoples of India and the Western Regions. The musical zanbei directly applied by Buddhism is also called “fanbei”; it praises the Buddha and the bodhisattvas in short verse form, has singing modes such as solo, unison and chorus, and may be accompanied by instruments when sung. The Tibetan chanting-tune music is mainly current at the Sezong Monastery of Xinghai County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and in farming and pastoral areas such as Jiawugou, Sangdang and Heka; the “mani-style chanting tune” transmitted among the farmers of Jiawugou Village has a history of more than one hundred years. The Qinghai Tibetan chanting tunes all have titles and tune texts, and their tune texts belong to the oral literature within monastic literature. The “antiphonal chanting tune of Milarepa and Churawa Gongbao Dorje”, in the form of verse, preaches the Buddhist teachings to the faithful; its vocal lines are melodious and pleasing to the ear. The “guardian-deity welcoming chanting tune” has unusually strong colouring of primitive religion and is sung mainly at the various large-scale Dharma assemblies. The Qinghai Tibetan chanting tune, with its archaic and elegant, pure and graceful character and its incorporation of beautiful folk melodic elements, is deeply loved by the Tibetan masses. Its representative works include 《Milarepa's Dao Songs》 and the like.
Milarepa's Dao Songs
Its representative works include 《Milarepa's Dao Songs》 and the like.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
By melodic type the “mani-style chanting tune” is divided into “ni-dong” and “yi-dong”; by performance form it is divided into “solo singing” and “multi-part singing”; by content it is divided into “hang-diao”, “sang-diao” and “blessing-diao”. The Qinghai Tibetan chanting tune is a concentrated embodiment of the creative wisdom of the monastic and lay communities of the Qinghai Tibetan area; as a spiritual bond between eminent Buddhist monks and the great body of the faithful, it occupies an irreplaceable and lofty place in the lives of the local Tibetans.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music · Buddhist Music.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The chanting tunes now in transmission consist of three parts: the “mani-style chanting tune”, the “antiphonal chanting tune of Milarepa and Churawa Gongbao Dorje” and the “guardian-deity welcoming chanting tune”; among them there are both pieces for singing and instrumental pieces for performance, and more than a hundred chanting-tune methods survive. At present the Buddhist activities of the various festivals and Dharma assemblies tend to be simplified, causing the chanting tunes to mutate, and there is also a break in the succession of the musician-monks; active rescue and protection work must therefore be carried out to ensure the smooth transmission of this traditional religious art. Suonan Zhuoma (per the official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in February 1968, a native of Xinghai County, Qinghai Province. Influenced by her grandmother and mother from childhood, she came into contact with the basic melodic methods and singing styles of traditional chanting tunes. The mani-style chanting tune she transmits is ritual music belonging to the folk religious activities of Tibetan Buddhism, centred on the six-syllable mantra of Guanyin Bodhisattva; its melody is archaic and elegant, and it has absorbed musical elements of folk mountain songs. Her voice is clear and bright; in chanting her emotion is full, her rhythm steady, her ornamentation rich, and she has a certain influence locally. Representative inheritor of the Buddhist music (Qinghai Tibetan chanting tune) item of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. She has taught the mani-style chanting tune systematically since 2010 and now has thirty disciples.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Song Chun 03-0889
- Shilongjiang 03-0890
- Dunzhu 03-0891
- Cheng Laijiacuo 03-0892
- Xu Jianye 03-0893
- Shiyongwu 04-1535
- Jiayanglezhu 04-1536
- Nimazhuoga 05-2149
- Suonanzhuoma 05-2150
- Luocangguanque 05-2151
- Luocanggengga 05-2152
- Kuochen
- Xincheng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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