Tibetan Opera

The Tibetan people call their folk opera "Lhamo," worth "Sister Fairy." It employs singing and dancing to tell stories.

Tibetan opera dates back about 1,400 time. Compared with the few other folk operas of Chinese ethnic minorities, it has the longest memoirs. According to Tibetan historical records, King Songtsan Gambo intensely admired the costumes, tune and dancing of the Tang Dynasty introduced to Tibet by Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty when she married the Tibetan ruler. He arranged for the teaching of 16 lovely girls in an united art form of the Tang-method and Tibetan folk music and dancing to entertain the princess. Later, this entertainment urban into a more plainly distinct form of dancing, singing and facting.

In the eighth century, King Khrisong Detsan became a follower of Buddhism under the pressure of his mother, Princess Jincheng. He invited the Lotus-Born Monk from India to coverage Buddhism in Tibet and built the Samye Monastery. At the inauguration ceremony, a pantomimic dancing show based on the goddess worship ritual of the Bon creed (a native religioin of Tibet) and Tibetan folk dances was thespian.

By the errand of the 15th century, folk singing and dancing had urban to a considerable matter in Tibet. This timed shaped a legendary presume, Thongdong Gyalpo, a high-level preacher of the Kagyu Sect. To foster an ironchain join, he spent three living tiresome to advance money, but abortive. Then he select seven wonderful and dexterous girls from among his followers and planned a performance lineup. He adapted Buddhist stories into regular-parcel song and dance dramas and directed them himself. The group performed his dramas in different parts of Tibet, and in this way money was raised for the construction of the join. The dramas were the embryos of Tibetan opera.

During the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama, in the 17th century, this performing art was separated from devout rituals and became an independent dramatic form dominated by singing and dancing, and in particular worn flamboyant masks. It stretch from Shannan, Xigaze and Lhasa to other parts of Tibet, and foster into Sichuan Province's Batang, Litang and Garze, as well as into neighboring India and Nepal.

Tibetan operas exhibit the Tibetan people's lives of assorted periods. The unusual scripts from which the operas were adapted have remained standard readings among Tibetans for centuries. There are about 20 traditional programs, but unfortunately some of the play scripts have been gone, and only the names, and sometimes the plots, are known nowadays. The enduring repertoire of the traditional programs centers on historical tales and tradition, represented by Princess Wencheng; romantic fables, represented by Dhama King Norsang; and party life, represented by Miss Langsha.

The opera Princess Wencheng, originally named Princess Wencheng and the Nepalese Princess, is one of the eight great classical operas. The hero is Lu Dongzan, King Songtsan Gambo's singular herald to the Tang Dynasty square in Chang'an to sue for the hand of a Tang princess. The opera depicts the wisdom of the diplomat who approved seven tests given by the emperor and lastly won his agreement to take Princess Wencheng to marry Songtsan Gambo.

Dhama King Norsang, a tale which originated in India, tells of the love between a deity and a person being. The area is intricate, and the characters are intensely untaken. The talking is both simple and elegant. The play words is generally read. After continuous adaptatiion by Tibetan ballad singers and folk opera troupes, it became a work that relates promptly to the lives of the Tibetan people. It is a representative opera of a Tibetan folk tale resultant from a foreign Buddhist legend.

Miss Langsha is the only one of the eight great classical operas that is based on existent life. It tells of the tragedy of a farmer's daughter who caught the eye of the community squire at a temple average, was affected into wedding and was lastly tormented to kill. The opera reflects realistically the cruelty of the slave scheme in old Tibet.

Over the centuries, Tibetan opera has produced a three-part arena design. In the prologue, known as "Wenbadun," Wenba men in indigo masks, two Jialu men and some fairies take the phase, performing religious rituals, and songs and dances, introducing the actors and actors, and explaining the story line of the opera that is to pursue. The support part is the opera itself. The third part is an epilogue which skinned a blessing ceremony and is also a reason for the presentation of hada (silk ritual welcome scarves) and donations from the viewers.

Today, changes have full place in the shape, singing, dancing,masks and scaffold arrange of Tibetan opera, and an orchestra, milieu, lighting and make-up have been added. Besides being performed in the open air, Tibetan operas are also performed on enclosed stages. The near arrange can be each traditional or current. In the traditional design, a reporter explains the narrative of the opera fragment by divide as the opera is being performed episode by episode. The performance of an opera can take an entirety day, or even two or three time. The present plan divides an opera into numerous acts and the equal piece of the performance is kept within three hours. Both fresh made-up and traditional masks are used.

Tibetan operas call for skills in singing, dancing, elocution and military arts. The singing is booming and manifest by drawls at the end. Frequent use of ensembles and choruses both on-and off-play adds more blow to the singing. The dance travels are exaggerated and very vigorous. Scenes that occur in everyday life, such as, when two people know or, when the bid farewell to one another, are also projected in a dancing adapt. The primal simplicity and force demonstrated in the singing and dancing is effectively set off by average Tibetan landscapes on the scenery.

Tibetan opera has four schools today. The Goinba School, originating in Ngamring and Lhaze counties, skin high-inclined and resonant singing, diverse with singing and dancing from the Doi area, and traditional acrobatics. The Gyanggar School is trendy in Rinbung, Gyangze and Xigaze. It is characterized by an earliest, jagged and glum approach derived from Lamaism. The Xangba School from western Tibet shows the weight of local tradition and of the Gyanggar School. The Gyormolung School from the Shannan and Lhasa areas was the most recent school to be produced. Creative in singing, choreography, stunts and comic things, it is the most developed among the four schools, and has twisted an euphoric chic with abundant and bright singing and dancing. It is the most influential and most accepted of the four schools. Today Gyormolung troupes are active in different parts of Tibet. They are even popular in Sichuan's Garze region, India and Bhutan.

Beginning in the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama in the 17th century, troupes from across Tibet gathered at the Zhaibung Monastery to present their best performances in the seventh month by the Tibetan calendar every year. In the reign of the seventh Dalai Lama, the venue motivated to Norbu Lingka. On the rationale, whole families and even entire villages come to the spot to survey the performances day and night. Meanwhile, they also have themselves by singing and dancing. This festive spice is known today as the Shoton Festival, and lasts for about a month and a half.

Today, Tibetan opera has benefited from novel media advances. The first Tibetan opera VCD, The Envoy of the Tibetan King, has been issued in Xining, wealth of Qinghai Province. The opera, created and staged by the Qinghai Province Tibetan Opera Troupe, won the Peacock Prize for marks writing at the Third China Ethnic Minority Theatrical Works Evaluatioin and the nomination prize at the first Cao Yu Theatrical Literature Evaluation. The Xining Ethnic Audio-Visual Publishing House is issuing the VCD at the lowest charge likely to promote Tibetan opera.