Tiaocaogai
01 · Historical Records
The Jumping Cao Gai has been handed down through generations in the White Horse Tibetan villages of Pingwu, and its origins are directly connected with the White Horse Tibetan worship of “Dana shijie” (the black bear god): the masks represent precisely this mountain deity, half man and half beast. The ritual of worshipping the mountain god on the fifth and sixth days of the first lunar month is the principal occasion for the dance; a chicken is first killed to sacrifice to the ancestors, then the mountain god is worshipped, then Cao Gai is jumped from household to household to drive away the ghosts, and finally the whole village, led by the masked shaman “bai mo” and by the Cao Gai, goes to the riverbank to sacrifice to the gods and send off the ghosts. Because the place of transmission lies deep in the Minshan mountain range and is cut off by poor transport, the Jumping Cao Gai long retained a plain and primitive appearance, and it was only recorded and collated by folk dance investigators in the second half of the 20th century.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Jumping Cao Gai is a folk sacrificial dance transmitted in the White Horse Tibetan villages of Pingwu County. “Cao gai” is White Horse Tibetan for “mask”. The Cao Gai masks are the images of the deity “Dana shijie” (the black bear god), half man and half beast. On the fifth and sixth days of the first lunar month every year each village holds a “Jumping Cao Gai” to worship the mountain god and pray for favourable weather and freedom from illness and disaster in the coming year. The procedure of the Jumping Cao Gai includes: killing a chicken to sacrifice to the ancestors, worshipping the mountain god, jumping Cao Gai from household to household to drive away ghosts, and the whole village, led by the masked shaman “bai mo” and the Cao Gai, going to the riverbank to sacrifice to the gods and send off the ghosts. The number of dancers must be odd, and they dance in a circle in the counter-clockwise direction. In the troupe there are three to five unmasked shamans called “bai gai” and four to eight masked “Cao gai”, together with one performer dressed as a “black bear” and one as a “wild boar”, who weave their dancing in among them. Onlookers may watch or join the troupe in the dance. The movements of the Jumping Cao Gai are rugged and awe-inspiring, plain and simple and little varied, and they clearly preserve the plain appearance of the primitive religious sacrificial activities of the White Horse Tibetan. The Jumping Cao Gai has a long history; because the place of transmission is cut off by poor transport and for other reasons, it has consistently kept its plain and primitive character, and the large amount of original White Horse Tibetan cultural information contained in it is very precious.
The bear-spirit mask
The mask depicts the human-beast bear deity, the concrete image of the Baima Tibetans' mountain-god belief, worn by four to eight dancers in the troupe.
The mountain-god rite in the first month
Held on the fifth and sixth days of the first lunar month, the dance prays to the mountain god for timely weather and freedom from illness.
The two ranks of priests
The masked priest and the unmasked priest share different duties, while one dancer plays a black bear and another a wild boar; the troupe must number an odd figure.
From the chicken sacrifice to sending the ghosts off
The programme runs from the chicken sacrifice and ancestral offering to house-by-house ghost driving and a final riverside sending-off led by the masked priests.
Gege, the highest-ranking Bai Gai
Gege, born in 1966 in Pingwu county, became the highest-ranking Bai Gai in 1987 and is the chief organiser and performer of the dance at local festivals.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The range of transmission of the Jumping Cao Gai is limited to the White Horse Tibetan villages within Pingwu County, Sichuan Province, and is most concentrated in the villages of the Huoxi River basin. Each village organises its own troupe on the fifth and sixth days of the first lunar month; the troupe consists of four to eight masked “Cao gai”, three to five unmasked shamans called “bai gai”, and one performer each as the black bear and the wild boar, with an odd total number of people, dancing in a circle in the counter-clockwise direction, while onlookers may watch or join in the dance. Compared with the other White Horse Tibetan villages, the Jumping Cao Gai has few variations in its dance steps, yet it completely preserves the full set of procedures — killing a chicken to sacrifice to the ancestors, worshipping the mountain god, driving away ghosts from household to household, and sending off the ghosts at the riverbank.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Gege (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Tibetan ethnicity, born in July 1966, native of Pingwu County, Sichuan Province. In 1987 he became a “bai gai” of the highest rank in the local White Horse Tibetan sacrificial activities, and is the principal organiser and performer of the Jumping Cao Gai in the local festival activities. His technique is accomplished and his dance movements expansive and graceful; he has consistently maintained the traditional stylistic character, and is highly praised by the local people of all ethnic groups and by his peers. Representative inheritor of the Jumping Cao Gai, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national batch. He is devoted to transmission and passes on the Jumping Cao Gai dance he has mastered to his disciples without reserve.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gege 05-2289
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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