Tibetan Opera Troupes and Schools of the Xigaze Area

Tongdong Gyibo, born in Ngaring County of the Xigaze Area, did much to develop Tibetan opera art, and the 5thDalai Lama then initiated the Tibetan opera festival to promote exchanges of ideas and the opera's further development.The blue mask performance school was the most influential among the Tibetan opera performance troupes. Of the four performance schools, three were founded in the Xigaze area: Joinpa school in Ngaring, Chianggarpa school in Rinbu and Shangpa school in Nam-     

SHOBA LHAMO COMES TO THE DACHO TEMPLE

A Tibetan opera troupe unexpectedly came to Dacho Temple in the suburbs of Beijing that was built during the Liao Dynasty.The OriginIn October 2005, the National Ethnic Minority Cultures Fair was held in Beijing. The Shoba Lhamo Tibetan Opera Troupe, which attended the fair as a member of the Tibetan Delegation, performed and won the excellent performance prize of the China folk opera competition. The traditional Tibetan opera item Zholwa Sangmo (segments) won the gold prize of Chin…     

THE MODERNIZATION OF TIBETAN OPERA——As exemplified by the Tibetan Opera Group of the Tibet Autonomous Region

<正>Traditional Tibetan opera is classified into two categories-the folkloric Tibetan opera,which is popular in the secular world,and refined Tibetan opera that pervades in upper-class society and Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. These two aspects of Tibetan opera mainly showcase the contents and themes of Tibetan Buddhism in order to reflect     

Highway Reaches Out to Chengtang

When I told Yugyia, Vice-Party Secretary of Chengtang County, my work team was to visit Chengtang, the Tibetan man found me more than 20 locals to go with me and transport materials to Chengtang. "Each day, there are people in Chengtang who carry logs to the county seat or Rewu Town in exchange for     

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TIBETAN AND HAN OPERAS

Tibetan opera is an ethnic and unique theatrical genre in the system of Chinese operas. All the ethnic operas in China are directly or indirectly akin to Han operas, so is Tibetan opera. As a member of the big family, Tibetan opera necessarily absorbs some artistic nutrition from other Chinese operas. As a result, it acquires the common style and some common formal characteristics of Chinese national operas as a whole. The generality just lies on the level of cultural genre and overall flavor, however. As for the entity of the theatrical art itself, Tibetan opera is basically and independently derived from Tibetan culture and art except for some indirect influences from Han operas. During Emperor Qiaulong＇s reign, some leaders of the Qing troops stationed in Tibet used to organize soldiers from Shaanxi and Gansu to perform Shaanxi opera in the army In the period of the Republic of China, the office of Commission on Mongolian and Tibetan affairs in Lhasa promoted opera performance to celebrate victory in the Anti-Japanese War, New Year＇s celebrations,     

TIBETAN BOOKSTORES in Nepal As I See Them

It was a fine day in Kathmandu when I walkedalong the major streets of the capital of Nepal.Unlike my friends, who went shopping or sightseeing, I was looking for Tibetan language bookstores.Before I set foot on the Nepalese soil, my friendsat the Sino-Nepalese border told me: "One fully loadedNepalese truck coming from Lhasa tumbled at the ZamPort, and what fell out was nothing but newly published Tibetan language books !"My friends with the Tibet People's PublishingHouse revealed tha…     

HADA PRESENTED TO THE PORTRAIT OF MAO ZEDONG

When I was a child, Mother changed old hada scarfpresented to the portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong with new one before the advent of the Tibetan New Year. The portrait stood above the Tibetan cabinet in the central part of our house. My sisters and brothers, and I were brought togeth-er, and we were not sup-posed to speak while Moth-er did this with great respect."Mom, why should we do this every year?" I onceasked Mother."Son, he is none other than our savior," Mother told me.When I gre…     

Chondo‘s LOVE AFFAIR ON TIBETAN OPERA

Qara Village of Nechung Town in Tohlung Dechen County is famed as the“Art Town of Tibetan Opera“. Whenever people talk of Jomulung-an active Tibetan opera troupe,including its history and future prosperity, they always give great credit to Chonda,a woman from Qara Village and leader of the opera troupe.     

My Story： from Shepherd Boy to County Magistrate

I was born in 1961,the second year after the Tibetan Democratic Reform.Now,I am more than fifty years old.I am a lucky dog to be living in the times when millions of Tibetan serfs have been liberated.The older generations have spent the first half of their lives in the darkness of old Tibet. My father told me that there were six people in our family then,yet the livestock belonging to our family amounted to no more than 50 sheep...no-where near enough to make a living.So everyone had to work     

MY COUSIN,AN EMINENT MONK

<正>Chapter One The day is the fifth day of the seventh month in the Tibetan calendar.It is an auspicious day due to the Buddha having once preached on this date.After lunch,my younger cousin called from our hometown and told me that my older cousin's relic stupa had been completed and     

Horkang Soinam Benba in My Eyes

I got to know Horkang Soinam Benba in the winter of 1956.I had just graduated from university and had the pleasure of accompanyinga Tibet study team, organized by the Committee for Ethnic Affairs of the National People's Congress and led by Professor Li Youyi. Our goal was to inspect the conditions of Tibetan music. While I was collating and recording the ancient Tibetan Langma singing and dancing, the prominent Langma folk artist, Ngamari, advised me to work     

Tenzin Yeshi and His Path of Tibetan Opera

正Tenzin Yeshi is a graduate student in Minzu University of China.Beside from being a student,he has an unique identity,a young Tibetan opera artist.During last year's Shoton Festival in Lhasa,he performed on the stage as a member of Shoba Lhamo,a Tibetan opera group for the first time.This association dates back to sixty years ago,and he finally realized his Tibetan opera dream after twenty years.     

西藏藏剧团60年弦歌不断薪火相传

When the curtain bearing the portrait of Thangtong Gyalpo is slowly drawn,drums and cymbals begin to rumble and clash stage right.Audience members can expect to see and hear such things at the Tibetan Opera Troupe Theater of the Tibet Autonomous Region.As a modern province-level professional opera troupe,the Tibetan Opera Troupe of the TibetAutonomous Region celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020.     

What Gave Thubten Palden the Idea to Burn Himself？

Thin and dressed in a red, yellow-lined monk＇s robe, 24-year-old Thubten Palden was seated quietly before me. His purity and simplicity were touched with a little shyness. It was hard to believe that such a young monk of the Nyingma Sect had the clear intention to burn himselfi Thubten Palden said that the idea occurred to him after he had an Internet chat with a Tibetan woman who was in India last summer. Intruth, the Tibetan woman （named ＂Trewa Online＂） is responsible for the overseas network of＂Independent Tibet＂.     

The Dissemination and Transformation of Han Chinese-style Sudhana or Chinese-Style Children in Tibetan Buddhist Art during the Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty was one of the important periods of cultural exchange and amalgamation between Han Chinese and Tibetans.Along with the governance of Tibet and other Tibetan areas by the Central Government of the Ming Dynasty,Tibetan culture represented by Buddhism and its art was disseminated in the interior of China,primarily in Nanjing city and Beijing city,the capital of the Ming dynasty.At the same time,Chinese culture represented by Chinese Buddhism and its art was also introduced into Tibet and other Tibetan areas.     

TIBETAN THANGKA PAINTER Painter Tseten Namgyal

In October of 2006,"Treasures of the Chinese Nation,an Exhibition of Tibetan Culture"was held exclusively at the Capital Museum in Beijing.Over 200 exquisite Tibetan cultural relics and 100-odd Tibetan folklore images unveiled in the exhibition hall attracted endless lines of visitors.While monks were busy making Mandala,a painter was sketching Thangka in the hall.In conjunction with the traditional art show in the exhibition (?) the visitors were profoundly inspired by such unique demonstrations of Tibetan culture. (?)Tibetan man glimpsed in a corner,wearing Tibetan robe,magnetically (?)gged on a small carpet and boning up on drawing (?)ecious flowers and clouds on the (?)seten Namgyal.     

Singing Soundly with Gratitude

Before seeing Asgen I had imagined a girl who has been on the stage of various parties on CCTV(China Central Television)many times for such a young age.She might have the air of a star but when I saw her the first time,my former suspicions all vanished right away.Before me,was a Tibetan girl who is so pretty,nice and easy going. When Asgen did the interview with me,the sunshine shone through the window and it was warm and peaceful in the room.As she spoke to me, her eyes were attentive and her voice seemed to penetrate one’s heart with enchantment.     

NEWS IN BRIEF

China Exhibition on Contemporary Tibetan Paintings Held in Sidney The exhibitioin was held in the Sofitel Wentworth Sydney Hotel in the evening of March 22, 2006. The three-week exhibition was sponsored the Sidney Wentworth Art Gallery, the China Tibetan Association of Literary and Art Circles, the Li Keran Art Foundation and the Chinese Consulate General in Sidney. It showed some 60 works by 10 contemporary Tibetan painters.     

RECOLLECTION ON CONSTRUCTION OF Damxung Airport

One day in April 1956, the Gaxag government of Tibet summoned me to the office where Galoon Soikang Wangqen Geleg and some others told me: "the Central Government has decided to build the Damxung Airport. The Tibet Work Committee has decided to put you in charge of the task."The news filled me with excitement, as it would be the first airport to be constructed in Tibet.On the second day, in Lhasa, I met with representatives of various counties in Nyingchi, Shannan, Xigaze and Nanggarze…     

Old Shezang＇s Story

The Namseling Manor rests on a site by a river, south of Samye Monastery and within the boundary of Namseling Village, County of Chanang in Lhoka Prefecture. The Manor was built during the Phagdrup regime. The Namseling Manor is a model of Tibetan feudal serfdom society. As an early, large-scalemanor house built in a time when Tibetan society lived under a serf-based regime, Namseling has survived hundreds of years as a witness to the formation and development of a feudal manor. After democratic reform in Tibet, the Namseling Manor stood deserted for more than half a century. The present manor, no longer what it once was, has embraced many life stories, including that of Shezang. The now elderly Shezang was born in Nagqu in 1927. Both his parents were servants in the nobleman＇s household. At 14 he was taken to Lhasa to work as a babysitter. The next year his parents passed away one by one. A fellow villager told him the news when he returned to Namseling at 26. Shezang has a younger sisterbut they were separated in Nagqu when both were still young. They never met again.