Traditional Dress Tibetan Robes
Towns and Rural Areas In Tibetan towns and rural areas, both men and women wear Tibetan robes on their upper bodies, while men wear pants underneath and women wear long skirts underneath. Most of the Tibetan robes are made of serge (cloth woven from yak), wool or tweed, mostly black, brown or dark gray in color, with large lapels and wide waists, and laces on the collars and cuffs, and because the robes are longer than a person's length, they are worn with the waist lifted up and tied with a belt.
Men's Tibetan robe has two fat sleeves, when it is cold, two sleeves are worn on the body, when it is hot, a sleeve is removed and tied to the waist, becoming a Tibetan "bare arm" unique attire; women's Tibetan robe is divided into sleeves and sleeveless (undershirt type) two kinds of robes, robes are usually also decorated with a "gang Dian" - a brocade beautifully woven and decorated.
Women's Tibetan robes are divided into two types: sleeved and sleeveless (vest type), and are usually decorated with a "gang dian" - a beautifully brocaded apron with distinctive patterns.
Women's hairstyles are generally tied into two braids, or hanging behind, or disk on the head. Fondness for hanging decorations is a major feature of Tibetan dress, regardless of gender, more or less on the body are hung with gold, silver, ivory, agate or turquoise made of ornaments.
Nomadic pastoralism
The Qinghai grasslands, northeastern Tibet, Amdo area and the southern end of the Tibetan plateau, is the main distribution of nomadic Tibetans. Because of the nomadic area climate cold, sandy wind, natural conditions than the agricultural area is more severe, so the region's Tibetan robe made of whole sheepskin, fat and spacious, the arms can be put into a lot of supplies. At night, the robes can be unzipped and used as bedding, hence the slang saying "Han Chinese people's bedding is on the kang, Tibetan people's bedding is on the body".
Women's hairstyles are tied into dozens of long, thin braids, which are decorated with gold, silver and turquoise.
Diet
Ghee
Ghee is extracted from yak or goat's milk, and is highly nutritious. Yak milk or goat milk is slightly warmed, then poured into the "snow dong bucket", stirred until a layer of fat floats on the surface, scooped up the fat into a bag, and cooled into ghee. The ghee can be used to make ghee tea, or added to the patties to eat.
Ghee tea
Ghee tea is the most common Tibetan drink. The production method is to boil the tea bricks into a thick tea juice, and then with ghee, condiments together into the ghee tea bucket, stirring until the water is blended after boiling to drink. Tibetan plateau climate is dry, lack of vegetables, and Tibetans mostly meat-based, so the ghee tea is their daily essential beverage.
Mochi
Barley is a kind of barley, cold-resistant, drought-resistant, and with a short growing period, it is the most important food crop on the Tibetan Plateau. The barley is dried, fried and ground into powder, and then added to ghee and pinched into a ball to become "mochi", which is the staple food of Tibetans.
Barley wine
Barley wine to barley brewed, the alcohol content of about 10 degrees, sweet and sour flavor, like the mainland rice wine, more like the mash in Sichuan. Barley wine is indispensable to Tibetan celebrations and banquets, mainland visitors to Tibet, even if they do not drink, but also to drink a few bowls.
Traditional Tibetan foods include "baozi" (Tibetan dumplings), sour cheese and air-dried beef and mutton.
Dwelling
Lhasa
Lhasa and other big cities in general common form of housing for the 2-3 stone towers, people live on the upper floors, the first floor for the warehouse or livestock enclosure. Walls painted white, balconies, windows planted flowers and plants, in the clear sky of the plateau under the backdrop of a fascinating painting-like color.
Rural areas
The buildings in the countryside are mostly wooden and stone cottages, with the roofs made of rammed earth, stacked with yak dung, wood and other fuels, and with colorful flags in the corners of the houses, fluttering in the wind.
Nomadic Area
The tent is the residence of Tibetans during the summer nomadic period, in order to facilitate nomadic relocation, the tent design is simple, easy to dismantle, the center of the wooden poles to support, around the woolen rope to pull apart nailed to the ground can be. The space inside the tent is about 10-15 square meters, and there is a stove surrounded by stones, which can be used for simple cooking. The tents are made of serge, which is thick and tough and keeps you warm.
Transportation
The Tibetan Plateau has a complex terrain and a cold climate, and although roads have been built year by year to facilitate automobile transportation, many traditional methods are still used on the vast plateau.
Yaks
Yaks, known as "yaks" in Tibetan, are mammals that live at the highest altitudes on earth, with small eyes, long hair on their bellies, shoulders, femurs and ribs, so that they don't feel cold even when sleeping on icy snow, and their solid hooves allow them to climb and walk on the snowy plateau. Although the yak moves slowly, but can load, long-distance trekking, especially can adapt to the plateau climbing and icy snow, is the Tibetan people's most important means of transportation, enjoy the "boat of the plateau" reputation. Yak dung can be used as fuel after drying, meat can be eaten, leather can be made shoes, wool woven into serge can be made into Tibetan robes, tents or blankets; yak milk can be refined into ghee, and made into ghee tea.
Cowhide Boat
The river in the plateau area has a strong current, and wooden boats are easy to crash into, so Tibetans invented the "cowhide boat". Cowhide boat is made of tough wood, wicker as the backbone, outside the yak skin sewn on a number of sheets, the hull is small, limited capacity, but the cowhide is tough to withstand the shoals and reefs. Cowhide boats can not go against the current, so the boat downstream to the end of the boatman will be the boat on the shoulders by land back upstream.
Backman
Near India, Nepal border Zhangmu, Lebu, Miling and other places, has been in India, China and Nepal international trade channel, but the Himalayan region is steep, yak caravan is also very difficult to pass into the team, so the transportation of this area depends on the local healthy feet of the Tibetans, who are engaged in the lifelong backpacking of goods, known as "backman "
The traditional way of transporting goods is to rely on local Tibetans who are strong enough to carry goods on their backs.
Traditional Entertainment
The main entertainment for Tibetans is probably the "Linca" (countryside feasts, wild feasts), which is the most popular holiday in the countryside. Ghee tea, barley wine, playing and singing traditional folk songs, the mood to dance or perform Tibetan opera.
Tibetan songs and dances
Traditional folk songs are the crystallization of Tibetan folklore, using metaphors, associations, anthropomorphisms and other techniques to describe the life of the Tibetans, customs, male and female feelings or historical stories. Tibetans are bold and heroic in nature, and they tend to dance to the climax of their songs, thus forming the Tibetan songs and dances in which there are songs and dances. "Jumping fruit harmony" is the most common Tibetan group dance, men, women and children hand in hand in a circle, to the beginning of the Dundi, foot for the rhythm, singing and dancing, in the past, jumping fruit harmony have men and women gathered on one side of the custom, but now it has been mixed together. "Jumping strings" is also a group dance, young men and women in the huqin accompanied by **** dance, the content of more than a narrative of men and women's love or rural field work. "Zhuo" and "hot bar" is belong to the more skillful,: for the exuberant and strong Tibetan songs and dances, "Zhuo" popular in southern Tibet, the dancers waist tie drums, while beating the dance; "hot bar" popular with the Tibetan east and Sichuan, Yunnan area, by a man and a woman **** dance, male hand-held brass bells, female one hand grasping drums, one hand holding a mallet, dancing around the circle Brahmaputra.
Tibetan Opera
Tibetan opera is called "Ajiram" in Tibetan, and it is a comprehensive art combining song and dance, dowry and drama. Tibetan opera is said to have originated in the fifteenth century, and developed after the seventeenth century. Traditional Tibetan opera performances do not have a specific stage, set, generally more in the city, the village square will be sung up, the actors in the square in a half circle, their turn to perform when they come out, and the rest of the time in the ranks as and sound to help the voice. Because it is an outdoor performance, Tibetan opera singing more high-pitched loud and clear, and the word sound pulled a long time, the formation of drag cavity. The basic structure of Tibetan opera is to perform a dance after the singing. The wearing of masks is a major feature of traditional Tibetan opera, and Tibetan opera masks are chic and lifelike, with two main types of masks: flat masks for the roles of gods and humans, and three-dimensional masks for animals such as yaks and dogs. The performances of Tibetan opera are generally divided into three parts, namely, "Winbarton", "Xiong" and "Zhaxi". The "Winbadon" is the prologue, the "Xiong" is the main content of the performance, the main play, and the "Zhaxi" is a short fund-raising ceremony after the main play. The themes of traditional Tibetan opera are mostly religious, with Buddhist scriptures, historical stories and myths and legends, such as "Princess Wencheng", "Zhuo Hua Sangm", "Prince Nuosang", "Rangsha girl", "Suji Nyima", "White Horse Wenba", "Dunyue Dunzhu", "Chimei Rolling Deng" for the famous eight Tibetan opera. Tibetan calendar from the end of June to the beginning of July Snow Festival (Tibetan Opera Festival), is the highest tide of Tibetan opera performances in a year, the Tibetans are gathered in Rinca, while eating sour cheese, while watching the Tibetan opera.