Asian Highlands Perspectives, Vol. 15: Rgyal Tibetan Village Life, Language, and Folklore

243 Pages·2012·41.21 MB·

by  G.yu 'brug, C.K. Stuart

and
nd
ISSN (print): 1835-7741
ISSN (electronic): 1925-6329
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008944256
©2012 by Asian Highlands Perspectives

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without
express written permission from the publisher.

Front Cover: Rgyas bzang (Jizong) Village, Kha mdo (Shuizi)
Township, Rong brag (Danba) County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi)
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China
(photo by G.yu 'brug, 2010).

Back Cover: G.yu 'brug's father plows in a field near Rgyas
bzang Village (photo by G.yu 'brug, 2010).

Abstract: This study of Rgyas bzang (Jizong) Village
includes a brief summary of G.yu 'brug's life, local languages
and location, agriculture, sleeping, eating, childbirth and child
raising, stone houses, stone towers, taboos and customs, and
folktales, a short story, annual religious rituals, death rituals,
pilgrimage to Mount Dmu rdo, marriage, education, a glossary
of non-English terms, a Rgyas bzang Tibetan Dialect-English
word list, and an English-Rgyas bzang Tibetan Dialect word
list.

Citation: G.yu 'brug (Yongzhong拥忠) and CK Stuart. 2012.
Rgyal rong Tibetan Village: Life, Language, and Folklore in
Rgyas bzang Village. Asian Highlands Perspectives 15.
CONTENTS

CONTENTS <3>
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS < 6>

PART ONE: THE LOCAL CONTEXT <8>
 Consultants <9>
 G.yu 'brug <10>
 Photographs <12>
 Village Introduction <54>
 Language and Location <58>
 Subsistence <71>
 Sleeping <73>
 Eating <76>
 Childbirth and Child Raising <77>
 Stone Houses <80>
 Stone Towers <82>
 Taboos and Customs <85>

PART TWO: FOLKTALES AND A SHORT STORY <89>
 Introduction <90>
 Sgang bzang stobs ldan (folktales) <90>
o Swapping Sheep and Goat Heads <90>
o The Origin of a Village Spring <92>
o A Monastery of Pebbles <92>
 Nor bu bzang po (folktale) <93>
 A Dog Saves Humanity from Starvation (folktale) <95>
 The Three Brothers (folktale) <96>
 Torn Between Two Lovers (short story) <98>

PART THREE: RELIGIOUS LIFE <107>
 Introduction <108>
 Daily Rituals: Morning Bsang and Daily Prayers <109>
 Annual Rituals <109>
o Renewing La btsas <109>
o Sa bdag <111>
o 'Khyags 'grig <114>
o Ra mchod <117>
•3•
o Sgrub lha <119>
o Smyung gnas <120>
o 'Bum 'gyur ma Ni <122>
 Death Rituals <124>
o Funerals <124>
o Bdun <130>
o Zhe dgu <131>
o 'Das mchod <131>
 Pilgrimage to Mount Dmu rdo <132>
o Introduction <132>
o G.yu 'brug Visits Dmu rdo <132>
o Dmu rdo's Birth and Power <136>

PART FOUR: MARRIAGE <139>
 Introduction <140>
 Lha mo's Marriage <141>
 Rgya mtsho's Two Marriages <146>

PART FIVE: EDUCATION <151>
 Introduction <152>
 G.yu 'brug's Experiences <155>
o Village Primary School <155>
o Learning Tibetan <162>
o Primary School Grade Two <162>
o Kha mdo Center Primary School <164>
o Older Brother's Accident <173>
o Rong brag Junior Middle School <176>
o Kangding Senior Middle School <182>

CONCLUSION <184>

NON-ENGLISH TERMS <185>
RGYAS BZANG TIBETAN DIALECT-ENGLISH WORD
LIST <206>
ENGLISH-RGYAS BZANG TIBETAN DIALECT WORD
LIST <222>
REFERENCES <238>

•4•
MAPS
 Map One. Rong brag (Danba) County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi)
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR
China. <7>
 Map Two. Townships and Brag mgo Town in Rong brag
County (Chinese names). <55>
 Map Three. Townships and Brag mgo Town in Rong brag
County (Tibetan and Chinese names). <56>
 Map Four. Languages Spoken in Rong brag County. <59>

TABLES
 Table One. Village population and names in Kha mdo
Township. <54>
 Table Two. Names for residents and locations near Rgyas
bzang Village. <64>
 Table Three. Comparison of selected Tibetan lexical items
in Stong dgu and Dge bshes rtsa townships. <65>
 Table Four. Tibetan dialectical variants for selected lexical
items in Bon dga' yul, Stag mo, Sgang bzang, Rgyas bzang,
Khrims ra, and La rgyab villages. <65>

•5•
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully thank the following people who helped make
this book possible:

A 'brug ཨ་འ$ག
'Bum mtsho འ"མ་མཚ།# (Bangchu帮初)
'Bum phrug འ"མ་%ག

Blo brtan rdo rje !ོ་བ%ན་’ོ་(།ེ
Daniel Berounský

Dbang mchog དབང་མཆོག
 (Wengque翁确)
Gerald Roche
Huadan Zhaxi (Dpal ldan bkra shis) དཔལ་%ན་བ(་ཤིས།
Kelly Elizabeth Ward

Marielle Prins

Ngag dbang phun tshogs ངག་དབང་&ན་ཚ)གས། Angwangpengcuo

(昂旺彭措)
Rdo rje don grub !ོ་$ེ་དོན་(བ།

Rgya mtsho lha mo !་མཚ%་&་མ།ོ (Jiangchulamu降初拉姆)
Rin chen rdo rje རིན་ཆེན་’ོ་)ེ།
Skal bzang dbang 'dul !ལ་བཟང་དབང་འ)ལ། (Gerongwengdeng格

绒翁登)

Timothy Thurston
Tshe dbang g.yung drung ཚ"་དབང་ག(ང་)ང་། (Zewengyongzhong

泽翁拥忠)
Tshe dbang rdo rje ཚ"་དབང་’ོ་)ེ། (Caixiangduojie才项多杰)

•6•
Map One. Rong brag (Danba) County, Dkar mdzes (Ganzi)
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR
China.1
Sichuan
Province
Dkar mdzes (Ganzi)
Rong brag
Tibetan Autonomous
(Danba) County"
Prefecture"

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
1 This is a modified version of the map by Croquant (2007) at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Location_of_Danba_within_
Sichuan_(China).png, accessed 2 July 2011.
!7!
"
PART ONE: THE LOCAL CONTEXT

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