Reba Dance

01 · Historical Records

Historical records state that Reba originated in the eleventh century CE and was created by Milarepa, the second patriarch of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. According to the recollections of local artists and to the Tibetan-language work "Naxu Chiru Lis" written by Mr. Renwang Dainzin and Mr. Suolang Dorje of the Biru County CPPCC, the earliest Dingga Reba was created and developed in the year 1040 by Milarepa, the second patriarch of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, together with Reqiongba, on the basis of the existing folk Reba, forming an independent dance art. This Reba dance historically went through a process of development and change in which it entered the monasteries from the folk and later returned from the monasteries to the folk.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Reba dance is a dance form performed by Tibetan "reba" artists. Reba is a comprehensive art performed by itinerant troupes who make a living from performing, generally organised around the family as the basic unit. It is centred on the bell drum and combines storytelling and singing, xie (song and dance), acrobatics, qigong and the Reba play into one. The predecessor of Reba was the "shamanic rites" and "totem dance" of the Bon religion, Tibet's indigenous faith. Dingga Reba is a folk dance transmitted in Dinga Village, Xiaqu Township, Biru County, Nagqu Prefecture in northern Tibet. The Dingga Reba that survives today takes two forms: Reba performed by monastery lamas and Reba performed by folk artists. Dingga Reba has many traditional programmes, more than thirty in all, and the way of dancing and the bearing of each programme are different from one another. Their content includes telling Tibetan history and legendary stories, and also promoting religious ideas to meet the needs of monastery sacrificial rites. Representative repertoire works include Oudong (beating the drum), Qujie Luosang (Prince Luosang), Sibaibama Ganguo (the original old father and mother), Jiasha Gongjuelangba (inviting Princess Wencheng) and Guru Dorje Re (the vajra dance ground), among others. Dingga Reba also contains many amusing performance movements, movements imitating animals and some little plays with rich plots. Over the past several hundred years Dingga Reba has been continually improved through the joint efforts of the people of Dingga Village, and its dance styles and repertoire have grown ever richer. Dingga Reba contains the cultural content of traditional Tibetan culture, embodies the outstanding creative talent of the Tibetan people in song and dance, reflects the open and assimilative aspect of Tibetan culture, and stands out on its own among Tibetan Reba dances.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Reba dance is distributed in Chamdo, Gongbo and Nagqu of Tibet, and in the Tibetan-inhabited areas of Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. Dingga Reba dance carries both the rhythms of the local herders' dance and borrows the dance postures of the Reba bell-drum dance around Chamdo. Taking the easy and natural movements of the herders' dance as its basic step, and drawing its upper-body performance on the passionate and unrestrained movements of the women who beat the hand drum in Chamdo Reba, it has formed a distinctive style that merges the essence of the dance of eastern and northern Tibet.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Reba Dance · Reba Dance.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

It has a long history, rich content, a distinctive style, superb technique, witty spoken passages and strange masks, and at the same time it absorbs the essence of the ancient Zhangzhung culture, religious culture and folk art. It has therefore become a wonder among the splendid cultural and art of the Tibetans in ancient times, and it has high artistic value and research value. Today Reba dance has appeared on stages at home and abroad and is cherished by a broad audience. In the past Dingga Reba was handed down by folk artists generation after generation, mainly through father-to-son family transmission; now Reba teams have been established on a village basis, so the reach of transmission has been extended. Dainzin Quta (associated inheritor, official archival record): Male, Tibetan, born in 1942, a native of Dingqing, Tibet. His work carries on the forceful, resonant dance style of Zhagasi Duoqiong, the founder of Dingqing Reba; the traditional dance routines of the "one-beat drum", "three-beat drum", "one strike three-beat drum", "five-beat drum", "two strikes five-beat drum", "six-beat drum" and "nine-beat drum" have all been preserved by him in full. His representative works are Reba Ling and Reba Qing. Representative inheritor of the Reba dance (Dingqing Reba), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch. Dainzin Quta began to join the Reba publicity troupe of Sezha Township at the age of 17, and won awards for programme choreography many times in county, prefecture and autonomous-region cultural exchange performances. Selo Quzhen (associated inheritor, official archival record): Female, Tibetan, born in 1947, a native of Mangkang, Tibet. In her youth Selo Quzhen studied the "Dongluo Reba" under the old artists Tashi Quzhen and Luozhui. Dongluo Reba is one of the performance forms of Dingqing Reba, a family Reba dance with a history of more than five hundred years, whose traditional programmes include the one-beat drum, three-beat drum, six-beat drum and nine-beat drum, interspersed with some xianzi, zhuo dance and male-and-female debate. From 1976 to 1984 she served as the instructor for "Dongluo Reba" at the Dingqing County Folk Art Troupe, and to this day she has trained a group of "Dongluo Reba" successors. Representative inheritor of the Reba dance (Dingqing Reba), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Danzengquta 02-0374
• Silangquzhen 02-0375
• Ganiao 02-0376
• Yunzhang 05-2231
• Sanbao
• Mayulin

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Reba Dance (Tibet) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Danzengquta · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Silangquzhen · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗