The Tibetan name for Tibetan opera is "Ajilam", which means "Fairy Sisters". According to legend, Tibetan opera was first performed by seven sisters, the content of the play is mostly a mythological story in the Buddhist scriptures, hence the name. Tibetan opera originated in the 8th century Tibetan religious art. 17th century, from the monastery religious rituals separated from the gradual formation of singing-based, singing, chanting, dancing, table, white and technology and other basic programs combined with the life of the performance. The Tibetan opera has a high-pitched and majestic singing voice, basically due to the people who set the song, and there are people's voices to help and sing each line. The original Tibetan opera is a square drama, only a drum and a cymbal accompaniment, no other instruments.
Tibetan opera overview: Tibetan opera is a general term for Tibetan theater. Tibetan opera is a very large theater system, due to the natural conditions, living customs, cultural traditions, different dialects and speech across the Tibetan Plateau, it has many artistic varieties and genres. Tibetan opera originated more than 600 years ago, more than 400 years earlier than the Beijing Opera, which is regarded as the national essence, and is regarded as the "living fossil" of Tibetan culture. Tibetan opera is the mother of Tibetan opera art, which spread far and wide to the Tibetan-speaking areas of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces through the monks and pilgrims who came to Weizangzong Monastery for further studies, forming the Huangnan Tibetan opera in Qinghai, Gannan Tibetan opera in Gansu, and Seda Tibetan opera in Sichuan. There are also Tibetan operas circulating in the Tibetan settlements in India and Bhutan.
Gannan Tibetan Opera: The localization of Gannan Tibetan Opera was the result of more influence from traditional Han Chinese opera. Gannan Tibetan opera was formally formed in 1946, and its emergence is related to Jamyang V Living Buddha. Gyalmudang V Dampay Khyentse was intelligent and studious, and very culturally educated. He was 21 years old (1937) went to Lhasa to study and preach during the period, many times to watch Tibetan opera, and some research. Three years later, he returned to Labrang Monastery in Gannan, and told Langcang Living Buddha about Tibetan opera in Tibet, and at the same time gave Langcang the task of writing scripts and directing. Langcang living Buddha is very knowledgeable, had lived in Beijing for nearly 20 years, often with the Beijing opera artist Mei Lanfang, more familiar with Beijing opera, so his scriptwriting and directing is not a wholesale copy of the Tibetan opera, but according to the actual situation of the Tibetan region in Gannan, with reference to the performance of the Beijing opera to reform the creation of the successive "Songtsen Gampo", "Ranmala" and other scripts, and rehearsal. 1946 winter in the courtyard of the palace of the Gyalmudan by the Gyalmudin V presided over the first performance of "Songtsen Gampo", Langcang Living Buddha himself played the role of Tang Taizong in the play. During the performance, thousands of Tibetan people, lamas flocked to watch, unprecedented.
With the birth of the new China, especially in 1953, the establishment of the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, so that people's thinking from the traditional confinement of the liberation, cultural life is increasingly active, the Tibetan opera repertoire continues to increase. 1955 Labrang Monastery rehearsal of the second "Nammu Te" Tibetan opera --- "Dabadanbao", "Dabadanbao", "Dabadanbao", "Dabadanbao". -In 1955, Labrang Monastery rehearsed the second "Nammut" Tibetan opera, "Dabadanbao," and in the same year, Labrang Monastery's "Oba Zacang" (Redemptorist Monastery) rehearsed the third "Nammut" Tibetan opera in Gannan, "Zhimei Ganden," and participated in the "Zhimei Ganden" opera. Zhimei Gengdeng", and participated in the Northwest five provinces and regions of the Opera Festival, won the award. 1956 and rehearsed the "Zhuo Wa Sangm", since then, "Nanmute"
The repertoire of the Gannan region of the Tibetan folk have been widely disseminated. Luqu, Maqu, Zhoni, Diabe and Zhouqu counties, but also monasteries, villages as a unit have set up troupes, to the end of the fifties in the state to develop Tibetan opera performance team of 36, 9 plays. However, with the rise of the anti-feudal struggle in 1958, "Nammut" Tibetan opera was banned as an art form that "promoted religious superstition and glorified feudal emperors". In the 1960s, Tibetan opera entered a period of prosperity, Labrang Monastery Theater Troupe launched the Ramayana in 1960, and the Redemptorist Monastery was not to be outdone in 1962, launching the Adalamao. But the good times didn't last long, and with the start of the Cultural Revolution, Tibetan opera was banned again, and many living Buddhas, monks and artists who loved to engage in "Nammut" Tibetan opera were brutally persecuted.
Huangnan Tibetan Opera: Huangnan Tibetan Opera is a type of Tibetan opera in Huangnan, Qinghai. In the middle of the 19th and 20th centuries, it used to cover Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and parts of the neighboring Xuanhua Sala Autonomous County and Hualong Hui Autonomous County, and is now mainly popular in the Huangnan area.
Huangnan Tibetan opera belongs to an important subfamily of Tibetan opera in the Ando language family, and its development has gone through the stage of rap from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century; the stage of formation of the three-person performance in the period of Xiazhicang III in 1740-1794; the stage of maturity in the period of Jixianjia in 1854-1946; the period of Duojijia in 1910-1973; and the period of Duojijia in 1910-1973. -The stage of prosperity and development during the period of Dorje Koshi Koshi from 1910 to 1973, and the stage of improvement and innovation since 1980.
Huangnan Tibetan opera has the following characteristics: 1. Has a wide range of mass and folk heritage. Folk and monastery Tibetan opera team, always keep close contact with the social people. 2. music retains the religious music component, also absorbed the local folk songs, dance music and other materials. 3. performance repertoire in addition to the eight traditional Tibetan opera, and "King Gesar biography", "King official but help" and other Tibetan areas do not have the repertoire. 4. preserved the "Gongbao Duoji listen to the law" this ancient and precious primitive theatrical form of the Ceremonial drama. 5. The improvisation is unique. These improvisational performances not only show the high artistic level of the scriptwriters and actors, but also play a good role in attacking the current evils and purifying the social environment.6. Successive generations of Huangnan Tibetan Opera artists have summarized a variety of lines and complete sets of performance programs, hand style and fingerings, body steps and character shapes in their long-term artistic practice, absorbing the characters of Huangnan Monastery mural paintings, and incorporating the religious dances of the monasteries, folk dances, and Tibetan life materials, forming a unique form of this opera. The performance program includes hand gestures, body steps and character modeling, which are absorbed from the frescoes of Huangnan Monastery.
After the 1980s, Qinghai Tibetan Opera Troupe was set up in Huangnan, and created and performed excellent plays such as "Yiluo Fairy", "The Messenger of the Tibetan King", "Golden Dawn", etc., which had a great influence at home and abroad. In recent years, by the impact of modern culture, Huangnan Tibetan opera is also facing a crisis of loss, the troupe is reduced, the artists aging, the performance range is narrowed, rescue is imperative.