Tibetan Culture

Tibet culture is very unique and very different from the other eastern area of China.

Tibet Opera
A story-telling art that combines literature with singing and dancing, is traditionally said to have been created in the early 15the century by the monk Tangdong Gyalpo. With the passage of time singing came to dominate the performance while remaining part of the overall integration of song, dance, music, acrobatics, and artistry. The performers wear white masks over their heads and traditional clothing in white. In their right hands they hold an arrow decorated with multi-colored silk ribbons as a symbol of auspiciousness and purity. Traditionally, there are eight major routines, Princess Wencheng, Prince Norsang, Drowas Sangmo, Sukyi Nyima, Nangsa Qinbum, Padma Obar, Donyo and Dondrup and Drimed Kundan, most of which are derived from historic events, lives of the great, folk tales and stories from the sutras. In recent years, the arts of Tibetan Opera have been greatly promoted. Not only are classic drama.s performed, drama skits with strong modern flavor were also created.

Singing and Dancing
The Tibetan people’s skill as singers and dancers have gained their land a reputation as the “ocean of song and dance.”. Music and dance are often integrated as one. The melodies beguile as the dancers move round the floor, sometimes lightly floating, other times boldly exuberant. This stylistically distinctive form is yet another beautiful flower in China’s folk arts garden. There is a great variety within the form. There are circle dances where the dances join arms and sing as they Modern folk singing and dancing beat out the rhythm with their feet, a kind of tap dance where the beauty comes from the creation of varying rhythms with the footfalls, and courtly songs and dancing also known as “great songs” or “praise songs.” Others commonly performed include the smoothly circling, expansive “bowstring dance,” the Repa performed to the accompaniment of golden bells and a silver drum, the big drum dance in Posterior Tibet and the waist drum dance in Tibet.

Fine Arts
Through the ages Tibet’s painters and sculptors have created an extraordinary body of work. Traditional Tibetan arts may be classified according to their forms and materials:

Murals:

The murals covering the walls in monasteries and palaces depict a wide range of subject matter. Buddhist images dominate, but there also can be found realistic scenes from daily life, pictures of production, building, battles, hunting, singing, dancing and music making, sports and Buddhist ceremonies. A freer imagination can be seen in the depiction of heavens, hells, deities and demons.

Sculpture:

Various forms of Buddha, the Dharma kings; tutelary deities, and the Bodhisattvas including Tara, patron goddess of Tibet, are produced in materials ranging from precious metals to wood, clay and shells to zanba barley dough and butter.

Tangkas:

Tangkas are painted or embroidered images rendered on cloth, silk or paper that are mounted on a cloth backing and may be rolled up like a scroll when not hung. A tangka composed of strung pearls is kept in the Qamzhub Monastery in Shannan Prefecture.

Carving:

Engravings and relief work are found on cliff faces, stone printing blocks for sutras, stone tablets inscribed with om mani padme hum, on buildings, bonework, ironwork and ritual instruments. These range from the comparatively reserved courtly work to the more uninhibited and roughly done work on the popular level. Composition is usually determined by the shape of the material, the artist responding to the medium he is working in: The cuts may be briskly vigorous or smoothly flowing.

Masks:

Masks depict the range of beings from deities to man and animals. There are masks for characters in Tibetan theater, Qiangmu religious dances and folk tales. Those depicting humans are carved to display a certain characteristic such as honesty, harshness, greed or humor. Animals depicted are principally deer, yaks sheep and birds.

Handicrafts:

The common people paint, carve or embroider their homes, clothing, jewelry, furniture, tools and other daily utensils with beautiful designs. Aprons, carpets, tapestry, silver bowls, knife scabbards, wine pots and saddles are made brightly decorated works of art.

Butter Sculptures:

Most butter sculptures produced in Lhasa and elsewhere are made for the Lamp Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Tibetan year. Skilled practitioners of this art can be found in the monasteries and among the lay people alike. The butter is first mixed with ice water, then mineral dyes mixed in. Working on a wooden support, a world of flowers and grassland towers and buildings populated with men and animas and Bodhisattvas, is then created.