Tu Wutu
01 · Historical Records
The Tu people's Yutu dance has been passed down for several hundred years. There are different explanations for the origin of Yutu: the theory of Chu culture, the theory of Qiang custom and the theory of Bon ritual. The name Yutu is the same as the Chu term for tiger; others hold that it derives from the ancient Qiang custom of tiger veneration in the area, or that it is connected with the exorcism rites of the Bon religion in Tibet. Neither the historical record nor oral testimony can settle the matter, but what can be confirmed is that this custom once circulated in a number of villages in the Longwu River basin and today survives only in Nianduohu Village, where it is already in an endangered state.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Tu people's Yutu is transmitted in Nianduohu Village, Tongren County, Qinghai Province. It is a distinctive form of folk culture of the locality, held every year from the fifth to the twentieth day of the eleventh lunar month, and includes rites such as the chanting of the peace sutra, humans and deities rejoicing together, and the expelling of epidemic disease and evil spirits. Yutu is also the name for the dancers. At the beginning of the rite, dancers called Yutu paint tiger and leopard patterns on their bare upper bodies and travel round the village performing, dancing from house to house. There are several views and also several folk accounts of the historical origins of the "Yutu" custom: the theory of Chu culture, the theory of Qiang custom, the theory of Bon ritual, and so on. Yutu is both the name of this folk activity and the name for the dancers. The dancing consists mainly of leaps, turns and the swinging of the hands, and proceeds along the lanes of the village to the accompaniment of gongs and drums. The range of movement is large and hurried, clearly distinct from the everyday Tu song and dance. The whole event is presided over by elders of the village, who chant the peace sutra, arrange the route and the order in which the dancers appear.
The annual cycle at Nianduhu
Held between the fifth and twentieth days of the eleventh lunar month, the custom joins sutra recitation, shared festivity and the expulsion of plague.
Dancers painted as tigers and leopards
The dancers called yutu, their bare torsos painted with tiger and leopard patterns, go from door to door dancing.
Three explanations of origin
Scholarship offers a Chu custom theory, a Qiang custom theory and a Bon ritual theory, and folk accounts differ as well.
The former spread along the Rongwo
The custom once appeared in several villages along the Rongwo river but survives today only at Nianduhu.
The inheritor Awu
Awu, a Tu man born in 1950 in Tongren, is a nationally recognised inheritor of the Tu yutu custom.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yutu activity is concentrated in Nianduohu Village, Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and is held by Tu villagers of the village between the fifth and the twentieth day of the eleventh lunar month of every year; it includes rites such as the chanting of the peace sutra, humans and deities rejoicing together, and the expelling of epidemic disease and evil spirits. The dancers, dressed as Yutu, go with bare upper bodies painted with tiger and leopard patterns, moving through the lanes of the village dancing at each household and carrying the meaning of warding off epidemic disease to every family and courtyard; once the courtesies are completed, the dancers go to the riverbank to wash the patterns from their bodies, and the year's Yutu activity comes to an end.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Historically the series of Yutu folk activities circulated in some villages of the Longwu River basin; today it is inherited only in Nianduohu Village, and is already in an endangered state. Protecting "Yutu" is of considerable significance for demonstrating the originality and richness of the traditional culture of the Tu people and for strengthening their ethnic identity and cultural self-awareness. Awu (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tu ethnicity, born in 1950, a native of Tongren, Qinghai. Representative inheritor of the Tu people's Yutu, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Awu 02-0400
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。