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This work documents
marriage customs and related oral traditions in Bang smad Village, Bang smad
Township, Nyag rong County, Dkar mdzes Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan
Province, China. Villagers speak the poorly documented Mi nyag language. This
study provides novel linguistic and ethnographic data, including a Mi
nyag-English word list, maps showing the distribution of Mi nyag-speaking...
The text and more than one
hundred full-page color plates document Tibetan folk music (particularly work
songs), and local life in the Sman shod Valley, Sde dge County, Dkar mdzes
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Bo nyed, a local elder,
describes the situation that motivated this timely documentation, "In the
past we sang constantly, but now people don't sing no matter...
Lavrung is a little
studied Qiangic language spoken by a small group of Tibetans in Rangtang
County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.
This work provides the first monographic introduction to Lavrung Tibetans and
their language and culture, focusing on the use of trilingual (Lavrung,
Chinese, and Tibetan) figurative speech in villagers' everyday discourse....
This book provides an autobiographical account of life on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Nagchukja's account takes the reader from his childhood in a resettled agro-pastoral community to his adulthood as a community grass-roots development worker.
Limusishiden (b. 1968) describes his lived experiences and recollections related to language, education, traditional beliefs, and folklore; provides details of his parents, three paternal aunts, and paternal grandparents' lives; describes Tughuan (Tuguan 土官) Village; and reports on a visit to Jija Nuri (Jijialing 吉家岭) Village in 2007 and its rapid cultural transformation, providing...
"I was born in a pastoral family in the autumn of 1986, in Rongrima Village, Hongyuan County, Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China. When I was a child, my family lived in a 'four-column' wood house made using four poles placed in a rectangular configuration in the center of the home. Four shorter poles were behind the central columns. Four-pillar...
This genre-bending work takes the novel down
paths not often walked for it documents a dying culture by a couple of this
cultural group, provides elaborate footnotes sure to interest the
anthropologically-minded reader, has portions that are biography and history,
and more. Its richly detailed description of folk and religious practices,
family interactions and breadth in the number and types...
The
Yul shul (Yushu) Rgyas bzang Tribe historically possessed a rich hunting
tradition. Wildlife was hunted for food and other animal products. By 2007,
hunting culture had diminished due to improvements in living conditions,
wildlife protection laws, greater state control of wildlife product skin market
and gun ownership, animal diseases, and the absence of such wildlife as wild
yaks in local...
The life and music of Ya ri
A bsod, a Tibetan composer and singer who lived in the early twentieth century,
is described. Ya ri A bsod wandered through Tibetan nomad areas where
contemporary Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces meet in China. Texts and
transcribed melodies of Ya ri A bsod songs are presented. These songs are
contextualized in terms of their contemporary transmission, and the...
Tibetan
concepts of gtsang ma (purity) in
Phug sde Village (Bla brang Township, Xiahe 夏河 County, Gannan 甘南 Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu 甘肃 Province)
are described. The role of purity in manipulating rten 'brel (fortune)
during village rituals is explored, showing the centrality of purity in Phug
sde village life.
Eight accounts and discussion
detail challenges faced by Ya na gdung (Yanadong) Tibetan and Muslim fellow
villagers in acquiring fossil fuels, related concerns, and provide historical
perspective on local fuel collection. Solar cookers have alleviated certain
challenges of fuel collection, reduced exposure to smoke-filled kitchens, and
provided other benefits; however, solar cooking technology...
China has undergone
profound economic change and growth since economic reforms began in the late
1970s. Although associated policies provided many business opportunities in
Tibetan areas of China, Tibetans remain poorly equipped to respond to and take
advantage of these opportunities.
Wa
poet Burao Yilu's utilization of myth, ritual, and folk customs in representing
the Wa ethnic group in the poem 'Moon Mountain' is discussed. Negative
stereotypes of the Wa, an indigenous people of southwestern Yunnan Province,
China, include the now forbidden practice of headhunting. By referencing the
origin myth 'Si gang lih' and evoking images of ancient cliff paintings,
rituals, and...
Dmu
rdo (Rgyas bzang dialect: mɜ dʉ)
accounts were frequently heard in Rgyas bzang (Jizong) Village, Kha mdo
(Shuizi) Township, Rong brag (Danba) County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi) Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China in 2010. An account of a
pilgrimage to Dmu rdo in 1993 is given, along with a Dmu rdo story in the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and in English translation...
Rdo sbis
(Daowei 道 帏) Tibetan
Autonomous Township, Xunhua 循 化 Salar Autonomous County, Haidong 海 东 Region, is located in eastern
Qinghai 青 海 Province,
PR China. Knowledge, beliefs, and behavior associated with childbirth,
midwifery, and childcare in Rdo sbis Township Tibetan communities are
described, focusing on a single village as a case-study.
