Explore a China many have not seen
Tibetan Ethnic Minority
My first exposure to a Tibetan was nearly 40 years ago in Tianjin while teaching English in a business university. The first thing I noticed was that her name had four characters rather than the two or three found in most Chinese names. While she wasn’t my official student, she was part of the class I got to know very well. Even to this day, I keep in touch with many of those students.
My second encounter with a Tibetan was in 2004 when I had a student from Tibet in my IB class. Her name was even longer. It was because of her and her family that I was able to take the trip in 2005 to Tibet. I do hope to be able to return to Tibet and meet more of its people.
Tibetans བོད་པ་
While the majority live in Tibet (dah), the next largest concentration is found in Sichuan. In fact, one of the most beautiful sites in China is found in Sichuan called Jiuzhaigou, Valley of Nine Fortified Villages. These villages were Tibetan settlements. Seven of the villages are still populated today. Tibetans are also found in Qinghai followed by Gansu and finally Yunnan (bordering both Sichuan and Tibet). Tibetans are also found in exile in India and neighboring Nepal.
One unique aspect of the Tibetan culture is the naming of the children. Contrary to what we are used to, the Tibetans have no surnames. It is customary for the parents of a newborn baby to ask a monk to give the child a name. Usually, there are then two names given. The first of which is used to call him or her by.
Tibetans in Lhasa
Sho : ཤོ
A traditional race game in Tibet. Its name is simply the Tibetan word for "dice". It is traditionally played for money and by men, with two to four players - three being the most common. With four players, the usual variant is to play as two teams of two, with the partners sitting opposite each other.
The "board" is formed by a circular line of shells, typically sixty-four in number. Each player (or team) has nine identical playing pieces, which are usually old coins. Two six-sided dice are used. They are placed in a wooden dice cup which is shaken and then slammed down onto a dice pad, typically made of yak leather stuffed with yak wool, which forms the centre of the board, within the circle of shells.
Tibetans in other Provinces
Tibetan girl teaches about Integrity
These Tibetan brother and sister were at the parking lot selling their fruits. We chatted with the girl and asked what kind of fruit she was selling. We've never had it. We weren’t hungry and didn’t want to buy fruits. We just offered to give her some money and for her to keep the fruits.
We didn’t expect her response. She said she couldn’t accept the money if we din’t take the fruits. Melissa tried to reason with her that we couldn’t eat the fruits but wanted to pay for her hard work. Her brother, would have taken the money in a heartbeat. We shared some of our snacks like Oreos.
Tibetan Traditional Clothing
Three Types Of Men’s Clothing
Le Gui (Labor Dress)
Location and weather determine the type of labor clothing men wear. Different region will have different styles. Different seasons will determine different materials.
Zhui Gui (Formal Dress)
Zhui Form is a kind of Tibetan festival dress and ceremonial clothing. The materials are expensive and the workmanship is exquisite.
Zha Gui (Warrior Dress)
Wear a fox fur hat on the head and a long sword on the waist, dress in a woolen Chu Ba and hang an amulet on the neck, which shows the masculine beauty of the warrior’s heroic vigor.
Tibetan Women’s Clothing
Tibetan women’s clothing is mainly reflected in women’s dress during festivals, major events in life, and ceremonies. There’s a great difference in women’s clothing before and after adult rites and marriage, which is also a major feature of Tibetan clothing. Hair style is influenced by the region. Each region will have a different hair style for women.
Tibetan Settlement and Influence Outside of Tibet
One of the things that struck me in my travels through the Southwest and Northwest China was how much influence the Tibetan had in this area. About three quarters of Qinghai and about half of Sichuan have had a long history of Tibetan settlement and Tibetan influence. You can see see it by the stupas you find on the side of the roads or the prayer flags lining the road or mountainside. You may find some Tibetan writing on the side of mountains next to the highway. Check the galleries below to see some of the influence Tibetan culture has had in these areas.
You can take a detour to these provinces:
Visit the beautiful Sceneries Sichuan has to offer >
Or
Make your way to Qinghai to explore China's largest lake >
Kumbum Monastery in 360° Google Street View
Kumbum (Ta’Er) Monastery སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང་
Kumbum Monastery, Ta’er 塔尔寺 in Chinese, is the birthplace of Master Tsongkhapa, founder of the Yellow Hat Sect or Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. In order to commemorate Tsong Khapa (1357-1419), the Kumbum Monastery was built in 1577 near Xining, Qinghai more than 150 years after his death. In Tibetan, Kumbum means '10,000 figures of Buddha'. It is one of the six monasteries of the Gelug Sect in China. In order to load and view the 360° photo on Google Streetview you may need a vpn in areas Goggle is blocked.
Please browse through the gallery below to view more photos of Kumbum Monastery.
Kumbum (Ta’Er) Monastery སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང་
Highlights of Kumbum (Ta’Er 塔尔寺) Monastery
སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང་
Butter Sculpture
Butter Sculptures were produced in Tibet originally. There were no fresh flowers offered to Buddha in the cold winter, so the followers made flowers by butter (mainly yak butter) to show their respect. The skill of making Butter Sculpture was brought to Kumbum Monastery and developed by the Buddhists after their painstaking research, and finally became a superb art. You can see fine sculptures of statues of Buddha, human figures, landscape, pavilions, animals and plants. In order to make excellent Butter Sculpture, the workers have to immerse their hands in the cold water even in freezing winter.
Grand Golden Roof Hall
Grand Golden Roof Hall is located in the middle of the whole temple. It was first built in 1560 AD and later refurbished the roof with 1,300 taels of gold and more than 10,000 taels of silver to a Han-style golden roof. A gold plaque from Emperor Qianlong was hung in the hall.
Tibetan Influence in Qinghai & Gansu
Sky Burial: བྱ་གཏོར་
Sky burial is a funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals, especially carrion birds. It is a specific type of the general practice of excarnation. It is practiced in the region of Tibet and the Chinese provinces and autonomous regions of Qinghai, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia.
The majority of Tibetan people and many Mongols adhere to Vajrayana Buddhism, which teaches the transmigration of spirits. There is no need to preserve the body, as it is now an empty vessel. In much of Tibet and Qinghai, the ground is too hard and rocky to dig a grave, and due to the scarcity of fuel and timber, sky burials were typically more practical than the traditional Buddhist practice of cremation.
In the past, cremation was limited to high lamas and some other dignitaries, but modern technology and difficulties with sky burial have led to an increased use of cremation by commoners.
Tibetan Influence in Sichuan
