Local Culture

Tibetan Culture

The Zang minority group is the most predominant nationality in Tibet. Tibet is sparsely populated with 90% of its population living a nomadic life and most of the farmers inhabiting the valley of Brahmaputra River and its tributaries—the Niyang River and Nianchu River. Tibet is poor in products and most of its crops are wheat, peas and rapeseeds. The northern prairie covering most of the land of Tibet is home to the herdsmen and flocks of yaks and sheep. Along with their herds, the herdsmen bring tents with them and live in places where there are water and grasses. The other 10% of the population living in town mainly do business and undertake handicrafts manufacturing and most of them are workers and government officials.

The Tibetan civilization is the very soul of the plateau. It’s the ocean of songs and dances, architectures, wall paintings as well as Thang-ga arts. In literature, hundreds of literary schools stand out brilliantly; in traditional medicine, the Tibetan medical arts shine with uniqueness.

Literature

Two types of literature constitute the Tibetan literature: the folk literature (the stories passed down by oral narration) and the scholastic literature (the well-written stories). The Tibetan usually call story “clock”. Two types of poem, the folk poem and the scholastic poem, comprise the Tibetan poem. Classified by age, the folk poem (what people usually call “the folk songs”), is subdivided into traditional folk songs and new folk songs. In Tibetan language, they’re generally called “Lu harmonic sound”. The Lu-style folk song mainly prevails in the plateau areas of northern Tibet. In most cases, four or eight verses make up a Lu-style folk song. The harmonic style folk song is well-accepted in Lhasa, Xigaze, Shannan and Ali and its forms are various. Some entail dancing while singing; some entail singing without dancing; some are sang in an antiphonal style. Generally speaking, each folk song is composed of four or eight verses.

Classified by its content, the scholastic poem is subdivided into Taoist poem, gnomic poem and ordinary poem. Love songs are of paramount importance in Tibetan poems. Amongst them, the most famous one is Madrigal, which was written by Cangyang Jiacuo, Dalai Ⅶ.

In Tibetan culture, The Life of King Gesar is undoubtedly a shining peal that draws a great deal of attention. It’s a long heroic epic that represents the scene when nearly 40% of the land in the Tibetan area was divided by different leaders with ulterior motives after the Tubo Kingdom disintegrated.

Tibetan Medicine

The origin of the Tibetan medicine can be dated back to at least 2000 years ago. It’s said that at the beginning of the Christian era spread a saying, “A cure always comes with a poison.” The earliest study of medicine that gained its popularity is called “herbal medication”, which relies on letting blood, fire therapy, applying medicine to wounds and massage to cure all kinds of diseases. Besides, there were such simple and original ways as employing hot butter to stop bleeding and utilizing barley wine to heal wounds. Legend has it that Princess Wencheng introduced 404 medical recipes, 5 ways of diagnosis, 6 medical appliances and 4 medical monographs to Tibet when she got married to Sontzen Gampo (a Tibetan king). Later, Princess Jincheng established marital tie with another Tibetan king, bringing a number of medical practitioners and medical treatises to Tibet. The medical treatises were even translated into Tibetan, which played a decisive role in the development of Tibetan medicine. More Introduction about Tibetan Medicine

Tibetan Buddhism

In 7 AD, Tibetan Buddhism was introduced from India to Tibet in the Tang Dynasty. Over a long period of time, it has evolved into the present Tibetan Buddhism that retains the original Buddhist doctrines while has striking Tibetan features. In other word, it’s a localized Lamaism. It was not until the 1950s that the theocratic rule of the Lama authority came to an end.

Indeed, not only does Lamaism serve as the ruling philosophy, but it also has become the spiritual home for the ordinary people. It creates the marvelous religious culture and arts and exerts an influence on people’s daily life. Many schools came into being over the evolving process of Tibetan Buddhism. Currently, there are four major schools: the Gelug Sect (commonly known as the yellow sect of Lamaism), the Ningrna Sect (the red sect of Lamaism), the Sakya Sect (the flower sect of Lamaism) and the Kaggu Sect (the white sect of Lamaism).

The Ocean of Songs and Dances

Tibet has been long crowned as “the ocean of songs and dances”. On traditional holidays, you can see people, man and woman, young and old, dance enthusiastically wherever you go. In the countryside, at the coming of autumn, the season of threshing and harvest, farmers sing and dance in circle while working in the field. In the pasture, wonderful campfire parties are frequently held through out the night. In town, people go on a trip to the rivers in the noble gardens with their families, drinking buttered tea and barley wine while performing the local dances from morning till night. They return home after thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Tibetan songs and dances are just like twin brothers in that they are inseparable and complementary to each other. However, singing and dancing are conceptionally different. There are rigid distinctions between them: “Lu” and “Harmonic” generally refer to singing; “Zhuo” and “Xiazhuo” have the meaning of dancing. There’re plenty of dances that are quite popular amongst the people. The most widely known and well accepted dances are “Guoxie”, “Reba”, “Duixie”, “Lexie” and so forth. And all of them are group dances. Duixie, also called “Tibetan tap dancing”, prevails all around Tibet.

The Art of Architecture

Tibetan people have created a myriad of spectacular buildings. Being cities and towns, Zongshan City, palaces, pagodas, noble gardens or manors, mansions of princes, mansions of the nobilities, ordinary houses, bridges, they all differ in style. All of them are the crystallization of wisdom of the Tibetan people and stand out as the national treasures in terms of the art architecture. Tibetan architecture art is well accomplished and it’s high in designing techniques. It employs the composing law of unity, balance, comparison, rhythm, harmony, proportional rate and measurement to achieve stereoscopic effects of beauty. Over the whole process of development, Tibetan architecture actively draws on the merits and advanced experience from other nations. Up to now, many of the ancient buildings remain the evident architectural style of other nations.

In Tibetan palaces, pagodas, temples, mansions of the nobilities, manors, there is the tradition of paining on wall and putting up Thang-ga pictures. Many renowned ancient buildings are far from being simple; they are the museums of the art of painting. Thang-ga is a traditional art of painting that came into being after the rise of wall painting. It embodies colorful ribbons into scroll paintings, presenting striking ethnic characteristics, a strong religious flavor and unique style of art. The topics of Thang-ga come from the Tibetan history and customs. There are historic paintings and custom paintings. Thang-ga paintings that reflect such sciences as astrology and Tibetan medicine can also be found.