What folk cultures are there in Tibet?

Tibetan Folk Culture-Brief Introduction

Folk custom is a long-standing historical and cultural heritage phenomenon. It reflects the historical traditions, psychological qualities, moral concepts and values of all ethnic groups to varying degrees, and is an important embodiment of national characteristics and culture.

Folk culture is a unique part of Tibetan culture. It was born in ancient times and has a long history.

In the classification of folk culture, people are used to dividing various forms of expression into material folk culture and spiritual folk culture. The material folk culture in Tibet mainly includes Tibet's scenery, architecture, clothing, diet, transportation and production. Spiritual folk culture mainly includes literature, art, religion, festivals, weddings and funerals, etc.

Tibetans are the main ethnic group living in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Bonism, the oldest religion in Tibet, and Tibetan Buddhism, which dominates Tibet's social politics, economy and culture, have penetrated into all aspects of social life and formed folk customs and aesthetic tastes different from those of other ethnic groups. Tibetan folk culture is rich in content and colorful folk cultural relics, including costumes, meals, rooms, weddings, funerals, festivals and entertainment. All these show us the process of the change and sublimation of Tibet's rich history and culture. Here is a brief introduction to the main contents of Tibetan folk culture.

Tibetan folk culture-clothing

Tibetan costumes are a long and beautiful cultural landscape on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which contains science and technology, life interest, aesthetic concepts, morality and ethics, and religious beliefs, all of which can become living fossils for studying Tibetan culture. Due to the different geographical climate and products, Tibetan areas can be described as "a hundred miles of different customs, a thousand miles of different winds." Different regions dress differently, showing colorful styles. Tibetan robes are the main costumes of Tibetans. They are all made of materials, woolen cloth, animal fur and other fabrics. It's wide and long and tied around the waist with a belt.

Tibetan folk culture

Kangba clothing in eastern Tibet has a rough atmosphere. It is convenient and practical to wear gold, silver, ivory, coral, agate, jade and other jewelry on the head, neck, ears and hands, and to hang Tibetan knives, ironware, wallets, snuff bottles, sewing boxes and other daily necessities around the waist. The whole costume is heroic and majestic, showing the unruly national character of Kangba people.

Northern Tibet is a vast grassland and sandy Gobi, and sheepskin is the main raw material for making Tibetan robes. This kind of sheepskin robe is wide and heavy, and it can be used as a garment during the day and as a quilt at night. It is with this Tibetan robe that people have resisted the cold climate in the northern Tibetan plateau. Most sheepskin dresses are light-colored, and some have black velveteen edges sewn at cuffs, skirts and hem. In summer, herders wear red tassel felt hats, and their waists are decorated with beautifully made broadswords, snuff bottles, waist knives, muskets and body-expanding symbols. These items are not only the appliances they live on, but also the embodiment of their decoration and wealth.

Sheepskin robe is also the main dress of shepherdess in northern Tibet. Their sheepskin robes are also decorated with red, blue and green velvet strips. Usually, their waists are covered with milk bucket hooks, sewing boxes, grazing whips and other objects. When celebrating festivals, they will also hang necklaces and gold and silver ornaments, comb their hair into locks, and put on woolen cloth or long hair covered with turquoise, shells and silver coins. Against the background of blue sky and white clouds, the whole set of clothes is bright and moving, full of national characteristics.

Lhasa has a pleasant climate and has long been the political, religious, economic and cultural center of Tibet. Clothing in this area is famous for its strict norms. Folk women in Lhasa make short-sleeved summer dresses with wool or silk and wear Tibetan shirts inside. Married women wear colorful dresses made of wool or silk around their waists. Wear sheepskin long-sleeved Tibetan clothes and "sheep summer hat" in winter. Ornaments include pearls, corals, turquoise and other "bazhu" crowns and various earrings, necklaces and rings. Hereditary aristocratic ladies wear herringbone pearls and pearls, while ordinary ladies can only wear coral pearls. As for all kinds of turquoise earrings, brooches and necklaces, they are all worn according to their own financial resources. Your wife in Lhasa is wearing jewels and exquisite ornaments. In summer, men wear robes made of wool or cloth, Tibetan shirts, hats and boots. From the style point of view, aristocratic clothing is not much different from ordinary Tibetan robes, but its texture and pattern are strictly graded, and its social status can be seen from the clothing. Tibetan monks have different costumes due to different sects, but the colors of their costumes are roughly the same. Except for the Kagyu Sect, they all wear yellow and red monk clothes.

Tibetan folk culture-diet

Tibetans feed on wheat, rice, highland barley and other grains, and highland barley suitable for plateau growth is the staple food. Tibetan people have a long history of planting highland barley. As early as 3500 years ago, ancient highland barley carbonized particles were unearthed at Changguogou site in Gongga in the late Neolithic period. After the barley is fried, it is ground into powder and noodles, which is called Baba. Ciba is divided into gluten-free refined Ciba and gluten-free coarse Ciba. A small amount of wine and casein can be added to Ciba, which can be eaten with meat, vegetables and butter tea. If proper amount of ghee, sugar and milk residue are added to the rice cake, it will taste better. Butter is an indispensable food in daily life in Tibetan areas. Extracted from fresh milk, it is a high-protein and high-calorie food, which has the functions of increasing calories and resisting hypoxia. Tibetans have the custom of drinking tea, and butter tea is the main drink. The raw materials of butter tea are butter, tea and salt, which are indispensable. Tibetan drinks include green tea, sweet tea, fresh milk and highland barley wine. Highland barley wine is a low-alcohol wine fermented from highland barley, which tastes sweet and refreshing.

Tibetan Folk Culture-Dwellings

Tibetan folk culture

Folk house is the most popular building, and its shape is subject to geographical environment, building materials, building technology, folk customs, living habits and other factors. Diaofang is a unique residential building form in Tibet. Bunker is generally a two-story structure, the upper layer is the living place of people, and the bottom layer is the livestock and storage room. Small windows and narrow doors are widely used in bunkers to keep out the wind and cold. The stigma and beams of the house are painted with colorful decorative paintings. This bunker has a flat roof and is paved with Aga soil. Aga soil is a naturally occurring semi-calcareous lime mixed clay. Beat for a long time after adding water, and then coat with ghee or elm juice. After drying, it is as hard as stone and as smooth as glass. Tibetan folk houses pay more attention to the decoration of the gate. Generally, a black strip with a width of about one foot is painted on both sides of the gate and the lintel, and various folk patterns are painted on the door beam. In rural areas, the sun and the moon are usually painted in the middle of the lintel, and there are some symmetrical animals on both sides of the gate to ward off evil spirits. Generally, blue, white, red, yellow and green prayer flags are inserted on the roof. Blue represents the sky, white represents clouds, red represents fire, yellow represents the earth, and green represents water. It is replaced once a year in the Tibetan New Year to pray for peace in the coming year. Yak tent is a typical pastoral housing. This kind of tent is made of thick stilts woven with cow hair yarn, supported in the tent with wooden poles and surrounded by straw cakes or dung cakes as walls. Although this kind of tent is simple, it is made of thick cow hair, which is not afraid of wind and rain, snow and freezing, and it is also convenient for herders to move at any time.

Tibetan folk culture-transportation

The vast snowy plateau is vast and sparsely populated, and the traffic is particularly inconvenient. Mules, horses, yaks and camels can only be used as transportation or on foot. Horses are indispensable faithful companions in the life of the people on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Tibetans have special feelings for horses and are very particular about saddles. Yak is known as a boat on the plateau. Although the action is slow, it has strong endurance and is the most ideal means of transportation in alpine mountainous areas. The feed for donkeys is easy to solve, and it is the transport animal power raised by every household in agricultural areas. The most common means of water transportation is a cowhide boat. The cowhide boat is made of tough wood and covered with several pieces of sewn cowhide. Cowhide is softened by soaking in water, and it is not afraid of the impact of stones in the river, regardless of the depth of the river. After crossing the river, the boatman can dry the cowhide boat, carry it on his shoulder and move it at any time.

Tibetan folk culture-utensils and utensils

Tibetans have a long history of gold, silver and jade crafts. As early as Tubo period, there was a gold, silver and jade industry. Many daily necessities, such as flagons, wine glasses, spoons, chopsticks and plates, are made of pure gold and sterling silver, and some are inlaid or wrapped with gold, silver and jade. Stoves, pots and pans are mainly made of copper. Tibetan metal products are eclectic in specifications, exquisite in workmanship and rich in three-dimensional sense with many auspicious patterns on the surface. Wooden utensils and appliances are more common in Tibet. Wooden bowls are convenient and durable, smooth and beautiful, easy to carry, and do not change their taste or burn their mouths. They are deeply loved by Tibetan people. There are many kinds of wooden bowls in Tibet, including large bowls for kneading dough, small bowls for drinking butter tea and covered bowls for storing things. Generally, wooden bowls are carved from birch, city bus and miscellaneous wood. Wooden bowls made of miscellaneous wood are strong in texture, not easy to break, clear in texture, more beautiful, and have the function of antivirus. Leather products are often used in pastoral areas. People use leather to sew tea salt bags and Ciba bags, especially leather bowl covers, which are beautiful and durable. The pottery production in Tibet has a long history. Pottery unearthed in Qamdo Karuo site more than 4,600 years ago, with various shapes, is still loved by Tibetan people.

Tibetan folk culture-cultural characteristics

The characteristics of Tibetan folk culture are firstly its regionality. Tibet is located on the roof of the world, accounting for one-eighth of the country's area, with an average elevation of more than 3000 meters. Himalayas, Gangdise Mountain and Nyainqentanglha Mountain run through the whole territory. It has the world's highest peak-Mount Qomolangma at an altitude of 8848. 13m, the world's highest peak-Namtso Lake, the world's highest peak-Yarlung Zangbo River, and the world's widest grassland-Qiangtang Grassland. This unique natural geographical environment has created a unique plateau culture, thus forming a distinctive pastoral culture, or nomadic culture, in the vast areas of Tibet. Simple black and white tents, long-haired yaks and goats mopping the floor, mellow milk tea, ghee, lofty pastoral songs and bold pot dance have become outstanding symbols of this culture.

The numerous mountains and boulders in Tibet provide sufficient material basis for Tibetan architectural features. Local organs of supreme political power and temples are often built on local hilltops. Whether it is palace buildings, temple buildings or urban and rural residential buildings, stones are the main building materials, which has become a major feature of Tibetan architectural culture.

Tibetan folk culture also has a certain religious color. For example, in the traditional song and dance art, there is a kind of dance called "Qiangmu", that is, dancing with God. According to legend, Lotus Peanut, a Buddhist master, combined Tibetan folk dance with Buddhist content and created a temple dance form to exorcise ghosts and evil spirits. Drums and other musical instruments are widely used in many temples to play ancient scholastic music.