Tibetan Culture

Tibetan

Culture

   

Environment

Tibet's official name is Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibet is known as the "roof of the world", it is on the highest region on earth with an average elevation of 4,900 meters or 16,100 ft.Home to Mt. Everest, it is located in the southwestern border area of the People's Republic of China. Tibet covers an area of more than 1.22 million square km. It is one-eighth of China's land area. Tibet is slightly larger than Alaska and Texas combined. Tibet is the second largest provincial-level area in China. Tibet also has a 3,842 km border with its neighboring countries Myanmar, India, Bhuatan, Nepal and Kashmir in the south and
west.  

The climate in Tibet is hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. Tibet's dry, cold climate has an average annual temperature ranging from -12℃ to 9℃ (10.4℉ to 48.2℉), which depends on the region. Temperatures in the mountains and plateaus can be very cold, and extreme strong winds are common year round. The river valleys have a more mild climate. Lhasa and central Tibet maintain
an average temperature of 0 ℃ (32℉) in                                

Mount Everest

December and an average of 17℃ (62℉) in June. The temperature can vary greatly on any day. In summer, the temperature can rise from 3℃(37.4℉) before sunrise to 27℃ (80℉) by the middle of the day. The temperatures in Tibet drop rapidly after sunset.

The average annual precipitation is about 381 mm or about 15 inches. The rainfall is even less in northern and western Tibet. Within the Tibetan Plateau, July is the "wet season" with an average rainfall of 122 mm (4.8 in). In fact, snowfall is much less common in Tibet than the one of their nicknames “Land of Snows" suggests. The sun rapidly melts off snow as it falls and artificial snow sometimes is made to offset drought. There have been several snow storms that result in an extreme amount of snow which are very dangerous and can be disastrous.  Tibet has been said to have all of the seasons in one day, ranging from below Celsius in the morning, to about 30 degrees Celsius or 86 Fahrenheit during the day and back to freezing at night.

The population setting for Tibet is mainly rural and they live with other cultures such as the Hindu and Chinese. There is a competition for resources as the Chinese government has taken over and control every aspect of Tibet in regards to the exporting of goods and natural resources.

Tibet can be pretty much divided into four different areas, in the south is the valley and drier regions, high mountains and river valleys in the south west, plateau in the North, and the wet forest regions of the east. This creates different climate zones from ice in the high regions to tropical in the lower mountain regions.  These diverse areas makes for diverse and complex species of flora and fauna.

Tibetan Flora

Tibet is home to extremely rare and nearly extinct plants and animals. Tibet has nearly 6,400 species of plants and 40 species are considered rare. Over 1,000 plants and flowers are used for used for herbal medicine. Some of the wildflowers found in Tibet are Primula cawdoriana, Sinoplantagines var. fengxiangiana, Cyananthus lobatus, Saxifraga spp., Polygonum griffithii; Meconopsis horridula var. racemosa, M. Integrifolia, Pedicularis bella and Fletcherii. Juniper trees and willow trees can be found in the valleys of central Tibet along with pansy and oleander flowers. The indigenous flowers tsi-tog are light pink, and bloom at a high altitude. Trees that are cultivated in the river valleys are apple, peach, pear, and apricot. The drier climates contain grasses and shrubs.

                        

Tibetan macaques

The Yak

Tibet has 125 animals on the list of rare species under government protection including the Tibetan antelope, yak, snow chicken and black-neck crane. Common in the mountain areas are the musk deer, wild sheep, wild goat, wild ass, yak, and Tibetan antelope.  Large mammals found in Tibet are the leopard, tiger, and several kinds of bear, wolf, fox, and monkeys.

Rare Snow Pigeon

Tibet has over 30 birds that are native only to Tibet and over 480 species of birds. Many rare and endangered species in Tibet may become extinct due to the current rate of deforestation in Tibetan areas.  

The environmental stresses that the Tibetan culture faces is the extreme cold and high altitude. It has been said that Tibet is one of the harshest living environments for human to live. One of the stresses that the Tibetan culture faces is global warming and the melting of the Arctic ice in the plateau. Millions of people depend on water from the Tibetan glaciers but with them melting at such a fast rate scientist are worried the ice wont last.

Adaptations

Rosy Cheeks of a Tibetan

Two long term physical adaptations of the Tibetan people living at such high altitude is that they: 1. Have 10 times more nitric oxide (NO) in their blood. 2. Twice the forearm blood flow of people living in low-altitude. Nitric oxide creates a dilation of blood vessels allowing blood to flow more freely to the extremities and aids the release of oxygen to tissues which is the result of the Rosy cheeks that Tibetans have.

Three cultural adaptations shown by the Tibetan culture to help them to adapt to their environmental stresses would be the control of fire, expanded tool kit including a bone needle for sewing complex clothing for the freezing environment and a cultural flexibility in subsistence practices.  

Language

Tibetan is the language spoken in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and in parts of northern India, it is the language of the Tibetan culture. Tibetan is a member of the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Tibetan is  monosyllabic and  lacks inflection.  Tibetan is  tonal language, having six tones, short high, long high, short low, long low, high falling, and low falling. Tibet has a system of writing for Tibetan since the 7th century. Tibetan is written from left to right.

Tibetan language

Gender Roles

The Tibetan culture has 3 genders, male, female. In Tibetan Buddhist writings they refer to the word ma ning which refers to a person without genitals or genderless.

Tibetan women foraging for tea leaves

Women in Traditional Tibetan culture maintain their maiden name and are responsible for the household duties like cooking, cleaning, foraging and raising children. Many Tibetan women become nuns and there are a number of nunneries in Tibet.  The men hunt and build. Currently women attend college and achieve accomplishments like the men do.

Nuns in Tibet

Tibetan children

Tibetans spend a lot of time with their children and they are always with them enabling them to pass down cultural traditions by way of hands on and visual techniques.

The protagonist in "The Blessed Curse" would be accepted to a certain extent, she would be considered part of the lower class in the social structure with less opportunities.

Subsistence

Agriculture fields and village in Tibet

There are four types of subsistence patterns in the traditional Tibetan culture: foraging , pastoralism , horticulture and intensive agriculture . Foraging is a subsistence pattern that focuses on hunting and gathering of wild plants. Pastoralism is the raising of livestock for food and economic value. Horticulture is the art, science, and business of growing plants, and intensive agriculture is designed for large scale populations where food is grown in large quantities per acre.

Due to the hostile takeover by China in 1959, many people of the Tibetan culture were forced to live in exile which has changed their forms of subsistence. They had to adapt to different environments as well.  

Eating together :)

The main food items in the Tibetan culture differ in pastoral areas vs. agriculture areas and as the seasons change. Their main staple foods include roasted highland barley flour, wheat flour, meat, or red food, and milk, or white food.  The staple in summer is the white food, and the staple in winter is the red food. In the pastoral areas are dried beef and mutton sausage.

The men were the main laborers of subsistence.  The general nutritional health of the people in Tibet is good they seem to have a pretty balanced diet and rely mostly on meat and grains.

Economic systems

Since the takeover by China, they wanted Tibet to have more exports and now Tibet has a surplus of grain and export cereal as well as medicinal herbs and plants.

Tibetan weaver

Tibet has a specialization of labor meaning that there are people who make clothing and people who make jewelry and there are butchers and people who make pottery and so forth.

The redistribution of wealth in Tibet refers to the taxes and levies  included land rent, stock rent, corvee and taxes. The payment of this rent consisted of livestock, forced labor and cash.

Tibetan currency is Chinese Renminbi (RMB) or Yuan is the official currency of Tibet. The paper money is; 1,2,5,10,50 and 100 Yuan, 2 and 5 Jiao and 1, 2 and 5 fen.

Trade from Tibet includes Tea, Silver, hides, wool, deer's horns, musk and gold dust. These items are exchanged in Tachienlu for tea, cotton goods and haberdashery of all kinds, such as are used in Tibet for trading purposes.

Marriage

Polyandry family in Tibet

Before the takeover in 1959, polyandry was widely accepted until china made it illegal. Monogamous marriages are the most common but in rural areas, polyandry marriages are the norm. That is when a woman has several husbands, most likely brothers.

Marriage partners are determined by the parents and sometimes by the person seeking love.

The females seem to value marriage more than men because traditionally women return to their home after three months of marriage to prepare barley and butter teas as well as other things for their husband.

Incest goes against the Tibetan Buddhist religion and is not practiced.
The residence patterns are primarily based in the nuclear family with just the immediately family.

The attitude towards homosexuality in the Tibetan culture is frowned upon and forbidden. The Dali lama had said that he is okay with homosexuality if they are not religious.

Kinship

Descent patterns of the Tibetan culture show the descent from the Chinese Han about 3,000 years ago. Traditional Tibetans have said that they descended from the marriage of the monkey Pha Trelgen Changchup Sempa and rock ogress Ma Drag Sinmo.

The patriarch seems to have the most authority over the family. The inheritance patterns go to the sons in the family and they are divided between them. Women are now fighting for more rights.

Tibetan women's association

 The Birth Ceremony called Pangsaiis a ritual that takes place to clean away the baby to wipe them out and grow to be healthy and the mother to quickly recover.  These rituals have been going on for over 1,500 years. On the third day of the birth for a boy and the fourth day for a girl is when certain households bring gifts for the new baby such as qingke barley wine, buttered tea, meat, butter and clothing.
After the birth rituals is when the baby will receive their name, usually a living Buddha is invited to name the baby and sometimes the parents provide the name.

Social organization

I would say that Tibetans are a stratified people. They are based on three social classes, one is the high class consisting of  Nobles, government officials and monks of pure conduct. The middle class has a large part of the population and ranges from minor government officials, to taxpayer and landholding peasants, to landless peasants.  It is possible for movement between classes but was only possible in the middle division. The lower class has what they call ragyabpa ('untouchables') of different types, blacksmiths and butchers. The very lowest of class has executioners, bachelors and hermaphrodites.

Tibetan Monks

Political structure

Tibet is now governed by the Chinese Communist party. The Tibetan government is in exile and has been reorganized with modern democratic principles.

The Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama over 80,000 Tibetans and members of his government escaped from Tibet to seek political asylum in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Over 120,000 Tibetans live in exile. The Dalai Lama is regarded by Tibetans as the head of state and their spiritual leader.

The Chinese communist party determines the laws and the punishment for breaking the laws are death, torture, mutilation, sterilization, and forced abortions.



The Role of Violence

A monk who set himself on fire

Tibetans are a peaceful and harmonious culture. With the invasion and hostile takeover by China, there has been numerous violent acts such Tibetan nuns and monks setting themselves on fire in protest to the China’s occupation and the horrible treatment of the people of Tibet. Another is the Tibetan infanticide and that is the killing of an infant. This has a negative effect on Tibetan culture.


Religion

Buddha (note that the symbol on his chest
 has a meaning of peace in Buddhist culture)

In the Tibetan culture, Tibetan Buddhism is practiced. It is a monolithic religion and the focus is on Buddha.
The history of Buddhism in Tibet starts with Bon which was the  religion of Tibet it was animisti, shamanistic, and parts of it live on today Tibetan Buddhism.
It  begins in 641 CE. On that year, King Songtsen Gampo  unified Tibet with  military control and had two Buddhist wives, Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal and Princess Wen Cheng of China. The princesses are credited with the introduction of Buddhism to their husband. In 755 CE, Buddhism became the official religion of the Tibetan people.

Some of the important practices in Tibetan Buddhism are performing rituals like food and flower offerings, water offerings, religious pilgrimages, the hanging of prayer flags and chanting prayers using a prayer wheel. Meditation is a very important practice as well.


Buddhism and its practices go hand in hand with the Tibetan culture. Overall I do not believe the Tibetan culture could function without it.



Art

Tibetan Monks creating a sand mandala

Tibetan art has many forms including, painting, jewely making and pottery. I will focus on the paintings of the Tibetan people. Mandalas are represented quite often in Tibetan art.  The function of this kind of art is that Tibetan Buddhists  tend to use  mandala paintings for attainment of a spiritual state, and even reach the transformation into the divine.

Tibetan music is a reflection of cultural heritage and it mainly religious. Tibetan singers are known for their strong voices, some say it is due to the high altitude.

Tibetan musicians

This music video represents Tibetan music  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5q4vM7J-UQ&feature=related   

Dance is a cultural and religious and spiritual expression as seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6T8QDpCXtI
 Almost all Tibetans can sing and dance.

Buddha in bronze

Religious art is expressed in just about all of Tibetan art including, paintings, sculpture, dance, and music.

Cultural Change

The Tibetan culture has been greatly affected by the Chinese culture and how they want to oppress the Tibetan culture. It is now forbidden to teach Tibetan language in schools and recently two teachers were jailed for doing so. They are trying to strip Tibet of its culture. The Tibetan people refuse to go down without a fight but the Chinese government makes it difficult for them controlling almost every aspect of their life. Tibet has a strong culture in the modern world because there are many people and countries that appreciate who they are and what they represent and are trying to free Tibet.

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