Mongolian Sawuerdeng
01 · Historical Records
After a long history, the Sawurden dance had almost been lost; only since 2004, through efforts to excavate it, has the part that survives today been restored.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Sawurden is an art originated by the Mongol Khushut branch alone; many of its movements come from daily life, and it has many forms of expression. Sawurden activity has no fixed occasion or time. At any time and on any occasion — the great and small Mongol festivals, weddings, family gatherings, neighbourhood gatherings and the like — it can be danced, and there is no restriction of sex or age among the participants. Sawurden has many performance forms, including collective dance of men and women together, collective dance of women, collective dance of men, and duet dance of a man and a woman. Men's dances imitating the movements of livestock, dances depicting such things as a woman looking in a mirror, putting on beautiful clothes and doing labour, and duets performed by young men and women to express their admiration for one another — all are important components of Sawurden. Sawurden has strong artistic imagination and creativity. Its postures are archaic and graceful, and dance movements such as shrugging the shoulders, bending forward and backward at the waist, moving the wrists and turning forward and backward appear often. Its imitations of the postures of people or animals are exceedingly lifelike, displaying humorous and witty qualities. Sawurden has twelve movements and twelve pieces of music to match them. In performance it is accompanied by ethnic musical instruments, among which the tobshuur, which carries the principal part, is a plucked string instrument unique to the Mongols. Mongolian Sawurden, in its distinctive form, expresses the life customs and spiritual outlook of the Mongol people, reflecting the way the Mongols live in harmony with nature and their life ideal of pursuing a good and happy life.
Twelve movements, twelve melodies
There are twelve movements with twelve matching melodies, the ensemble led by the tobchur, a plucked string instrument peculiar to the Mongols.
The tobchur
The tobchur is the Mongols' own plucked string instrument and the leading voice of the dance, its deng-deng sound giving half the dance's name.
Mirrors, eyebrows and livestock
Its subjects come from daily life, men imitating livestock, women mirroring themselves and dressing, and couples dancing their affection.
A Khoshut creation
A creation of the Khoshut Mongols drawn from daily life, it was nearly lost and only partly recovered through the fieldwork begun in 2004.
Butai's eleven ways of dancing
Born in Hejing in 1949, Butai is a third-generation transmitter who knows eleven ways of dancing, has the richest arm movement and has taught over five hundred pupils.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Sawurden is a local dance form transmitted among the Mongol folk, distributed mainly in Hejing, Bohu, Hoshu, Yanqi and other counties of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, in Hoboksar Mongol Autonomous County of the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, and in the Ili, Tacheng, Altay and other regions of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sawuerdeng · Sawuerdeng.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
With the rapid development of society and the ever richer cultural life of the people, the transmission and development of Sawurden as a traditional dance form faces a serious crisis, and effective measures urgently need to be taken by the relevant departments for its active protection. Butai (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official file): Female, Mongol ethnicity, born in June 1949, native of Hejing County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. She is the third-generation bearer of the dance technique of the traditional Mongol dance Sawurden. She began learning the Sawurden dance at eight, is familiar with eleven ways of dancing Sawurden, has a rich variety of arm movements and strong expressiveness, and is the folk artist who masters the greatest number of kinds of Sawurden dance. Her dance postures are graceful and moving, and she renders the humour and the dignified elegance of the Sawurden dance with great vividness. She takes in many disciples and has trained more than five hundred of them, enjoying rather high artistic influence in the locality. Representative inheritor of Mongolian Sawurden, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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