An Amdo Tibetan Village New Year Trance Medium Ritual

Gling rgyal Village's (Tongren County, Rma lho [Huangnan] Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon [Qinghai] Province, China) Mag pa Mountain God lha ba Lo sar (Tibetan New Year) Ritual is described. Despite recent scholarly attention to Reb gong klu rol, ritualized lha ba activity and dances in the context of Lo sar in Reb gong have been ignored. Ru zhol ma and Ru gong ma are Gling rgyal groups that held the ritual on the first day of the first month of the Chinese Lunar calendar. This presentation describes preparatory activities, rituals at Mag pa Shrine,and the Ru zhol ma threshing ground in the late twentieth century, illustrating that klu rol embraces certain dances and other activities that that are also performed during Lo sar.