Untitled - Life and Culture on the Tibetan Plateau

LOCATION
This study examines a hair changing ritual in a farming
village in a rural Amdo Tibetan area in Mtsho sngon
Province, PR China held on the fifth day of the first lunar
month, 2007. Brag dmar nang Tibetan Village is situated in
the east of Dkar brjid Township, Khri ka County, Mtsho lho
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It is forty kilometers from
the village to Khri ka County Town, twenty kilometers to the
township center, <strong>and</strong> 110 kilometers to Zi ling (Xining) City,
the provincial capital.
Dkar brjid Township has twenty-two administrative
villages, including Brag dmar nang Village, which is one of
eight all-Tibetan administrative villages in the township; the
others have Han <strong>and</strong> Hui residents or a mixture of Han, Hui,
<strong>and</strong> Tibetan inhabitants. All 240 Brag dmar nang villagers
(fifty households) live in adobe-wood rooms constructed
around open courtyards. The village is located in Lcang ra
Valley. Natural conifer forests cover the Mtsho 'khyil
Mountains west of the village. The village adjoins Sde tsha
Tibetan Autonomous Township, Dpa' lung Hui Autonomous
County, Mtsho shar Region to the east. Despite Brag dmar
nang Tibetan Village's administrative affiliation, it culturally
belongs to Sde tsha Tibetan Autonomous Township. This is
shown, for example, by the fact that when villages in Sde
tsha Township hold religious <strong>and</strong> secular ceremonies <strong>and</strong>
festivals such as Lnga ba'i gdugs dkar, 7 Brag dmar nang
Village <strong>and</strong> four villages 8 in Sde tsha Township gather to
chant Gdugs dkar for one day in each of three villages <strong>and</strong>
two days in each of two villages from the nineteenth to the
twenty-fifth days of the fifth lunar month. Brag dmar nang
villagers must join the other four villages in a sngags pa
'cham dance on the third day of the third lunar month <strong>and</strong> in
displaying a large thang ka depicting the deity of the Future
7 During this festival, Gdugs dkar is chanted on the
nineteenth to the twenty-sixth days of the fifth lunar month.
Gdugs dkar literally means 'White Umbrella'. It is the
scripture of the goddess of the same name who has a
thous<strong>and</strong> h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> heads.
8 The four villages are Lcang rtsa, Grang ka, Mes nyag yar
ka, <strong>and</strong> Mes nyag mar ka.
•18•