Tibetan Culture & Arts
Culture and Arts
The immense plateau of Tibet is sparsely populated, and they are mainly categorized as Drogpas(Nomads) and Shingpas(Farmers). Due to its geographical and natural condition, central, eastern, southern, and western Tibet is mainly populated with Shingpas(farmers). At the same time, far east and west, northern Tibet has been inhabited by Drogpas (Nomads) since its early days. Still, it is common that both nomads and farmers can be found in the same region, where nomads live in the mountainous grassy region and farmers live bottom of the valley and bank of the rivers. Over the centuries, we developed Tibetan culture under both internal and external factors. The cultural influence of the neighboring countries also played an important role in the development of Tibetan culture, including Nepal, India, and Bhutan in the south and west, China and Mongol in the north and east. Later in the 7th and 8th centuries, the introduction of Buddhism from its origin country India had exerted a deep influence over the whole plateau. Buddhism became an indispensable part of the Tibetan culture. Gradually cultural variations came to exist due to the regional geographical and environmental distinction in different parts of Tibet. Generally, the cultural variation in Tibet can be described by Utsang(central and western Tibet), Kham (far-eastern part), and Amdo (northern part), since then its geographical remoteness and inaccessibility had isolated the region from the rest of the world and preserved its rich and indigenous culture without any influence from the outside world in the names of modernization. After the 1980s, when Tibet was widely opened for outsiders, it brought a tremendous boost in its economic development and phase of modernization; naturally, the cultural degradation leads to a long gap between the older people and youngsters within the country, in the way of their speaking, attitude, clothing, belief, manner and so on. Still, the Buddhism philosophy and practice have deeply rooted in their day to day life of all Tibetans, intensively celebrate religious festivals and making pilgrimages to distant monasteries, holy mountains, and lakes are becoming an indispensable part of their life, so the H.H, the Dalai Lama, describe Tibetan culture as Buddhist culture.Tibetan Language and writing
tibetan calligraphy
Tibetan houses
Tibetan houses are widely different from region to regions, in the central Tibet it is built by the combination of stone, earth and wood, wherein the eastern part use mostly wood and fragile wall in the outermost, some part in the western and far-eastern(Khampa) use adobe and wood, only in eastern Tibet the houses have peak roof to accommodate the long monsoon in the region, other regions have a flat roof with Lungta (wind horse prayer flags) on each corner to disperse the prayers in the wind, all the doors and windows are beautifully decorated with paintings and colorful clothes called Shambu. Each family has a special room as a temple, and it is fully decorated with ritual items, images, and thangka. In the villages, there is a small compound around the house as an animal shelter, and the southern walls of the houses are largely covered by circular cow-dung for drying.Yak
Tibetan yak
Tibetan food
Tibetan farmers mostly grow barley, wheat, and potatoes, which require only three months to produce, from barley they make Tsamp and flour from wheat, which then stores for the use of whole year around, Tsampa is the main staple food in Tibet, it is made from roasted barley by water mills, the dry and cool climate allows near-eternal preservation. The roasted barley, mixed with the tea and butter, will be used as a basis for the nourishment, which is the ” tsampa. ” Apart from that, there are complete traditional cuisines that are mostly non-vegetarian as only a few vegetables grow in the harsh climate in the early days. These cuisines were consumed previously by rich families. Today these products are used in tourist restaurants. Where the culture of greenhouses is intensively using in Tibet, and different vegetable cuisines are available. However, in the lowest valleys of the south and south-east, one will find trees and vegetables because of its tropical climate. Tibetan never eat seafood like fish and wild animals, though there are abounding wild animals and fishes are can be found almost in every river in Tibet. As per the Buddhist philosophy, killing is sin, and the accumulation of sin will lead to bad karma in the coming life, so Tibetans eat only domestic animals that they feed. Also, they are so many vegetarians in Tibet, especially lamas and monks in the monasteries.Sky burials
The Tibetan custom of sky burial in which corpses are dismembered and fed to vultures has attracted mixed feelings of revulsion, fear, and awe among outside visitors. Yet, the custom must be the only means of disposing of the dead in Tibet, but it is the most popular throughout Tibet. Tibetan is strongly practicing Buddhism and believing in death and rebirth from their own Buddhist teachings. Following the moment of death, the consciousness or spirit will leave the deceased body, and the body is thought to return to one of the elements- earth, air, fire, water, or wood. Though there are also other burial practices in Tibet, it is only subjected to limited conditions. Cremation is mostly used for high lamas and the ashes placed in a stupa as funeral tombs. Earth burial is also rare, and those who are dead by poison or communicable diseases will be buried. Water burial-where the deceased body is fed to fishes, it is mostly reserved for small children. After several days of ritual officiation, monks will help the consciousness transfer from the deceased body and guide it to the next life. Then the corpse brings to the sky burial site. There are several holy sky burial sites around the Tibetan plateau, including Sera Shar and Dregong Thill in central Tibet; and Darling monastery in Golok. Corpses may be carried long distances from dismemberment at one of the preferred sites. There specialized monks or laypeople at the burial site works at the sky burial site, the corpses cut into shreds and feed to vultures, bones also crushed and mixed with Tsampa and feed at the end. The vultures mostly stay nestling near the sky burial site and are summoned by an offering of incense. They are revered as birds of purity, subsisting only on corpses. Tibetans are not the only people to dispatch the dead in this way. The Parsees in India follow a similar custom. However, the ancient Parsee religious custom may soon disappear because the vultures that eat the bodies are headed for extinction in India. Populations of both the long-billed and white-backed vulture have crashed since 1996 due to a virus of some kind.Song and dances
Tibet is also known as the “Ocean of songs and dances,” dancing and singing are extensively spread throughout Tibet since centuries ago. Songs and dances are widely categorized as wedding songs, love songs, archery songs, circular dancing songs, folk songs, drinking songs, labor songs as so on, they are deeply connected with their daily life, especially during the festivals people spend whole days of dancing and singing with their traditional dresses.
Tibetan opera was date back to its origin in the 15th century, it was founded by the first Tibetan engineer Thangthong Gyalpo, who built 108 chain bridges within Tibet, and he started the Tibetan opera with seven brothers to raise funds and materials to build the bridges since then it became one of the most popular public show that mostly plays during the festivals. On the vast plateau of Tibet, nomad shepherds are lonely, catering to the herds of their animals in the alpine grassland. Still, their songs accompany them, and they are express all their feelings through songs in open nature. That is also how they practice their voices.
Prayer flags
Prayer flags were originally used as talismans to protect Tibetans during the war. It is originated from the Bon religion that people used prayer flags for protection, and it is printed symbols such as snow lion, dragon, and the tiger the flag. Tibetan prayer flags were eventually adopted into Tibetan Buddhism with prayers or messages of hope and peace printed on them. The colors of Tibetan prayer flags are significant in five different colors. It symbolizes five basic elements in a certain order, blue stands for the sky, white for air or wind, red for fire, green for water, and yellow for earth. Prayer flags depict mantras of different deities and protectors, such as Tara, Guru, Chenrezig, etc. Tibetans can place prayer flags inside a room in your house, and traditionally, they were placed outside the house. Tibetan hang the prayer flag on clean and windy spots like high passes and riversides. That is why you can see a heap of prayer flags on almost every passes in Tibet. Tibetan Prayer flags above all symbolize peace and harmony.
