It has been quite the year. So much so, in fact, that I have forgotten entirely about maintaining this blog. As there are a few moments today while I'm letting some recent experiences percolate, I've decided to write a little update on what has happened since my last post. First however, let me give some highlights: 1) The first ever evening show dedicated to Tbtn comedic dialogue, hosted in Hongyuan County 2) Pilgrimage around Amyes Rma chen mountain 3) The horse race festival resumes in Yushu! 4) Travel to Lhasa 5) States in October 6) Conference on Yi Studies in Chengdu 7) Performing a sketch comedy for the Qinghai Tbtn television station's New Year Variety Show མདོ་ཁམས་ཡུལ་གྱི་སྐབས་དང་པོའི་གར་ཆུང་དང་ཁ་ཤགས་ཀྱི་དགོང་ཚོགས་ཆེན་མོ། A mdo's First Sketch Comedic and Comedic Dialogue Evening Show At the end of June and the beginning of July, I attended the first ever evening show dedicated exclusively to performances of Tibetan comedy. Although Sman bla skyabs has retired and was not present, there were excellent performances from Sog phrug shes rab (2 of them), Mgon tho, 'Jam dbyangs blo gros, Gnam lha 'bum, and even a unique finale in which Zhi bde nyi ma performed one of the first ever natively written and produced A mdo Tibetan one-act tragedy. Interestingly, three performances featured discussions of the popular social networking application, WeChat. Two others featured discussions of fake foods, and several also included discussions of language purity. Together they suggest the prevalent issues of 2014 A mdo. Pilgrimage to A myes Rma chen རྟ་ལོ་གངས་ར་ལུག་ལོ་མཚོ། rta lo gangs ra lug lo mtsho In the year of the horse, (circumambulate) mountains, and in the year of the sheep (circumambulate) lakes. The traditional saying tells about religious practice in the A mdo region. This year, is the year of the horse, as a result, it is a particularly auspicious year in which to circumambulate Tibet's holy mountains. For A mdo, the most famous is A myes Rma chen (pronounce Amnye Machen) in Mgo log TAP. For five and a half fantastic days, I circumambulated the mountain with three friends, and numerous others we met along the way. On the first day we walked from Tsha nag kha mdo, the traditional starting point, to one a site just short of our first major pass. It began to rain at about midnight, and the rainfly to our tent had not been shut properly (my fault) meaning my boots were pleasantly wet when we woke up and began our walk the next day. The rain continued throughout the morning, and as we rose up towards that first high pass, rta mchog gong ma, the rain turned first to sleet and then snow. It wasn't exactly fun, but it was still fantastic. Then we reached the pass, and found that we had arrived for the 15th of the lunar month. This meant that, far from being the only people there, we met up with about 20 young men who were worshipping at the pass and racing their horses. We ate a hurried lunch, and then walked on through the marshy plain towards west. We trudged all day, finally finding a camp at around six. Footweary, we were all glad to finish up for that second day. For the next three days, we had perfect weather, and were treated to beautiful sites, great travel companions, and a great time in general. I am thankful to Puhua, his nephew (also named Puhua…) and Rose for traveling with me. But no matter how brilliant my powers of description, my iPhone camera (not exactly a photographer's dream device, but good enough) tells the story far better than my words could. Yushu horse races resume! At the end of July, with young Kyle Walsh in town (my high school wrestling coach's son), we travelled to Tsomo's hometown where we caught the first horse race festival held in the town since 2007. It was a great occasion, although the four days is an unfortunately truncated version of a festival that--by all accounts--used to stretch for three weeks. Ah… the sweet sweet workings of capital. This meant that, spread throughout the prefectural seat, and double booked on top of each other, one could see: love song competitions, dance competitions, gesar performances and conferences, gesar opera, horse races, an art and photograph exhibit, yak races, and also partake in the myriad other activities that beautiful Yushu has to offer. In addition to the horse races, we also found time to check out Sengze Village, the valley featuring gorgeous Rewopo and rewomda villages, and Legs pa Gorge (Ch: le ba gou). Good times Lhasa Not content with what had already been a fantastic summer, we also took advantage of a small break in September to knock out another part of the "China Bucket list": Lhasa and the TAR. Although strange rules prohibiting a foreigner and a local from traveling together in the Western TAR prohibited us from circumambulating Kailash (a huge regret, and I guess we'll have to wait until the next year of the horse for that… #kailash2026!), we were able check out the sites around the capital including Yumbulagang, Samye, Ganden, the Potala, Mt. Everest, Shigatse, and more. Check out the photos below. The USofA in October Went home, met with the committee, applied for jobs, and attended the wedding of Samuel B. Johnson and Katy Svatek Johnson. Happy for them. The International Conference on Yi Literature and Culture in the Anglophone World Upon Return to China, I went to an Yi Studies Conference in Chengdu. It was great to see so many old friends, and to be reminded how many Chengdu people I have missed. I talked about Soul-Calling, Zomia, and the Tibeto-Yi corridor. It was well-received, which was a minor shock to me. What's even more, I wasn't the only token international person! There was also a Japanese scholar present. Very cool. In addition to meeting up with Yi poet/scholar/force-of-nature Aku Wuwu, I was able to learn about Yi kunju--a traditional genre of extemporaneously composed comedic verse--and make tentative plans to begin a project of collection and translation with Wuyi, a professor at Southwest University of the Nationalities. Performing a sketch comedy with Zhi bde nyi ma In mid-November, comedian/director/poet/teacher Zhi bde nyi ma approached me with an offer to perform with him at the New Year's show, with recording set for mid-December. In less than a month, a group of us prepared a sketch and performed it. Fantastic. I gained incredible insight into the process, which was essential for my dissertation, and now look forward to my new celebrity as "Tom the Australian" (better puns than "Tim the American). In it, I have to recite a poem, perform part of a bsang mchod and sing a song, all as part of a performance about cultural preservation where I, as foreign researcher, seem to authorize the discourse or preservation. More on that in future publications.
0 Comments
|
About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |