Before Nyima Cering, a 22-year-old folk dance lover from a
western Tibet village, began dancing for tourists, he had worried
that the ancestral dances of his village might have been on the
verge of extinction.
The village's traditional dance, the Mina Qamo, originated
hundreds years ago and was traditionally performed every 12 years
to celebrate copious harvests and to pray for good fortune.
"It was passed down from generation to generation during
performances as there are no text manuals," said Cering.
"The 12-year time gap between each performance had made young
folks in the village less interested in learning the dance. They'd
rather spend more time in farm work or land jobs in big
cities."
However, the dance has brought some unexpected good fortune for
Cering.
As more tourists flood into Tibet, especially since the opening
of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in 2006, Nyima Cering's village
rediscovered the charm of the Mina Qamo -- this time as a lucrative
new business.
"I organized a dance team with a dozen young folks of my age in
my village about six months ago. We have since performed the Qamo
almost every night for tourists in exchange for a handsome tip.
Now, even more people are drawn to learn the dance to earn money,"
said Cering.
The Qamo was originally a religious dance performed by lamas in
monasteries in Tibet's Gongbu area to subdue the "evil spirits",
which absorbed the local animal-mime dances, divine instrument
dances and the ceremonial mask dance of the local religion "the
Black Sect". "Mina" is the name of the area where Cering's village
is located.
"Tourism in Tibet is not just spectacular landscapes, but is
also the appreciation of the folk art that boasts such a along
history," said He Yi, a tourist from Chengdu, capital of
southwestern Sichuan Province.
"I am now greatly reassured that the Mina Qamo will survive in
my village, at least for my lifetime," Cering said.
The Mina Qamo is just one of many traditional art forms to have
benefited from Tibet's booming tourism industry.
Tibet, with a native population of 2.8 million, recorded more
than 3.2 million tourists in the first nine months of this
year.
"The surge of tourists flooding into Tibet have not only brought
economic development, but also doubled the audiences of Tibetan
traditional dancing and other art forms. Tibetan culture
preservation is benefiting from the booming tourism," said Yao
Weiping, director of cultural development with the regional
government of Tibet.
About 3,000 Tibetans were registered as traditional art
performers back in 2002. The number exceeded 18,000 this year, said
Yao, emphasizing the number had increased dramatically since the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway opened.
"We simply make more money by performing traditional dances for
tourists than we do from farmwork," said Nyima Cering. "In order to
attract more tourists, we must dance better, sing better, and
understand our ancestors' legacy better. What better way is there
for the preservation of our traditions?"
Nyima Cering's comments are echoed by Benba Sinuan, leader of
the "Shobalamu" Tibetan Opera Troupe.
Founded in the 1970s, the opera troupe is among the most reputed
in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.
"Despite our popularity among Tibetan people in Lhasa, the
troupe almost went bankrupt at the beginning of the 2000 because
there were few business opportunities. So in 2004, we started
performing Tibetan operas at local hotels for tourists," said Benba
Sinuan.
"With a steady and handsome income, more young talented people
have been drawn to us in recent years, and we now have adequate
resources to refine our performances and better understand the
operas we perform.
"There are eight major traditional Tibetan operas, five of which
our troupe can play. We are researching the other three, hopefully,
to restore the wholeness of traditional Tibetan opera," he
said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2007)