Tibet, the ridge of the world, is also famously known as the "Ocean of Songs and Dances”. The Tibetan people are good at singing and dancing. Nearly every Tibetan can sing and dance, like the old saying goes “People who can talk can sing, and where there is crowd, there is dance.” Tibetan dance and song are twins,impossible to be separated from each other. If they sing, they are sure to dance, and they dance while singing. They sing anytime for any event and dance at festivals, weddings, and gatherings as well as during their spare time. A history of over several thousand years has witnessed the development of many kinds of folk dances in Tibet, and we only take some common dances as examples.


Tibetan opera

Tibetan opera means "sister fairy maiden" in Tibetan. It is a kind of public square opera, which has play, vocal music, separate roles, accompanying band and special masks and clothes, and its main form is song and dance. According to legend, at the beginning of the 15th century, it was monk Tangdongjiebu of the Gelug Denomination who created Tibetan opera for the purpose of collecting alms to construct a chain bridge over the Yarlung Zangbo River. It was popular in the 17th century. Materials of the plays are mostly drawn from folk stories. The performing process is divided into three parts: Wenkedun (rite of coming on the stage), Xiong (main part), and Zhaxi (rite of wishes at the end of the performance). The time is different for different plays: short ones last several hours while long ones are performed for 2 to 3 days.

The main schools of Tibetan opera are: white nuo (means "exorcise" and is a provincial opera featuring masked dancing) school, blue nuo school, Jiangga'er school, Xiangba school, Juemulong school, etc. The Juemulong School is the most famous among them. Though it was the last school that came into being, because it brought forth many new ideas on such aspects as vocal music, dance, trick and comedy performance, it surpassed the old-timers as the latecomer.

Local Tibetan opera teams of the Juemulong school spread all over in Tibet and Ganzi, Sichuan, and later they exported to India, Bhutan, and etc(spread all over Tibet Autonomous Region and Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan, and later they were exported to India, Bhutan and etc.). Its performing forms include dance, speaking, chanting, fixed vocal music, etc. The plays of Tibetan opera are very rich, and the eight great Tibetan opera plays are the most famous ones, such as "Langsaweiba", etc. Drum and cymbals are the only accompanying instruments for traditional Tibetan opera, and actors wear masks when they perform. Dark red mask stands for king, light red mask stands for ministers, yellow stands for Living Buddha, blue stands for hunter, green stands for female,
white stands for ordinary male, black stands for negative character, and mask with half white and half black stands for double-dealer.

Since the 17th century, twelve famous opera troupes of the whole Tibetan region(of the whole Tibet) gather in Lhasa in July every year, and perform for Dalai, officials, monks and ordinary people.


Guixie

Guixie (circle dance) is a kind of self-pleasing song and dance popular in countryside of Tibet. When dancing, people hold one another's hand into a circle, and they are divided into different teams with one team singing a song and the other teams joining in the chorus. The songs rise one after another, and people stamp on the ground as rhythm singing while dancing. It is often seen at the edge of villages, open ground or wheat-beating ground in farming areas. On festive occasions, people dance from morning till night, and return home after thoroughly enjoying themselves. Because words of "Guoxie" is easy to understand, the sounds are harmonious, and the words can be created extemporaneously, Tibetan people often exchange their true feelings and pour out their cherished desire for nice and happy life through the song and dance style.


Duixie

Duixie (tap dance) is a kind of song and dance in countryside from Lhatse to Tingri. It started in the middle of the 17th century. During "Shoton Festival", when performing Tibetan opera, the Tibetan opera group from the Rear Region of Tibet, alternated a kind of dance, which was accompanied with six-stringed instrument and took stamping as rhythm. Then it became cheerful and enthusiastic folk dance of the Rear Region of Tibet. Later it was improved by actors and ancers, and became urbanized Tibetan tap dance. It is the most popular in Lhasa and Xigaze, and is often seen at open ground, street, courtyard and "Lingka".


Zhuoxie

Zhuoxie (drum dance) is mainly popular in Lhoka, Lhasa and Xigaze. Drum dance is generally played by male performers. The dancer wears colored clothes and cloak hat made of white cloth, wears an apron around waist and ties a string of small bells around the leg. They also pass two silk girdles through the two iron rings on a flat leather drum, and tie one around the left thigh and another around the waist. The dancer waves a pair of feather hammers with both hands to rap the drum while flitting to and fro. The drum rumbles, the bells jingle, the rhythm is cheerful, and it is full of power. When the high tide of the performer comes, the dancer begins to show drum-beating skills. He beats the drum while singing at first. Then when the dancing morale becomes high, he stops singing and begins
to perform some acrobatic movements, such as "flinging the waist while beating the drum", "flinging the braid to beat the drum", "beating drum while moving bended knees", etc, which make people's morale reach the high tide. Then he finishes beating drum in fanatical and exciting atmosphere.

From: Science Museums of China