musical flight in tibet

Musical Flight in TibetAuthor(s): Ter Ellingson-WaughSource: Asian Music, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1974), pp. 3-44Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833886 .Accessed: 18/07/2013 09:24

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MUSICAL FLIGHT IN TIBET By

Ter Ellingson-Waugh

INTRODUCTION

Shamanism is the term used to designate a large group of apparently closely related tribal religions spread throughout Inner and Northern Asia, Analogous religions in other regions, such as the Americas, are probably related by diffusion; and even in areas where diffusion is unlikely, religious structures of a sufficient structural similarity have been found for the terms "shaman" and "shamanism" to be applied to them, Many writers use the term as a generic one; but here, we use it in a narrower sense to refer to religions geographically and structurally close enough to make virtually certain a direct historical connection with Central Asian forms. These religions occur in an area encompassing approx- imately the shaded part of Map 1. Religions of groups in this zone show a highly convincing number of resemblances; among these, shamanic music shows remarkable consistency from one area to another, as we will see later.

Most of these peoples are pastoralists, ranging from the reindeer cultures of northern Siberia through the MLongol horse and camel nomads, the Tibetan yak herders, and the sheep and goat pastoralists further west and south. Many are nomadic. Hunting is still important for several groups; and for some (the e.g. Evenks in Siberia, the Japanese Ainu, and Siberian Eskimos,) hunting was until modern times the principal or exclusive means of subsistence. On the basis of cultural distribution and religious symbolism (e.g., animal gods and costumes) writers of diverse viewpoints such as Mircea Eliade, (1951), Grahame Clark (1957), and Carleton Coon (1970) have assumed some kind of connection between shamanism and the religious practices of hunting cultures as archaic as those which produced the Palaeolithic art of France and Spain, Some of the Tibetan and comparative evidence suggests a possible clarification of this connection.

For the sake of clarity and of keeping the present study within reasonable limits, "shamanism" is treated here as if there were a single standard form; the construct of a "classical" shamanism used by Eliade and others. The description of shamanism here is therefore ethnographically inaccurate, in that it ignores the diversity of form and practice found among the various groups. It is also presented from a perspective that highlights the similarities between the various shamanisms and the Tibetan Bon (P8n) religion,

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and that explains each in terms of the other, The relationship of Bon to Asian shamanism has been well established by Hoffmann (1950, 1956), Nebesky-Wojkowitz (1956), Rock (1937, 1959), and Eliade (1951). This choice of viewpoint is determined by my working primarily with Tibetan sources,

Two further distortions might arise in connection with the Tibetan evidence. First, although Bon is historically of shamanic origin and retains many typically shamanic elements of belief and practice, it is no longer shamanism in the form found among other Inner Asian groups. By the time of the introduction of Buddhism into Tibet around the seventh century A.D., it had already become a state religion with a class of sacrificial priests (although sacrifice is a part of other shamanisms, such as in Mongolia, and may well be an archaic feature). And Bon has since been deeply influenced and changed by Buddhism. The second thing to bear in mind is that most of the Tibetan evidence comes from a Buddhist context, and that most of the practices which seem to exhibit shamanic features also have good, solid Buddhist reasons for being there. This would only be a problem if we assumed that each element in a culture can only be the result of a single isolated causal chain. However both Buddhism and the indigenous Tibetan culture seem to have been rich and complex enough to admit coexistence and combination with outside elements, The most common distortion in Tibetan studies is the widespread impression that Buddhist culture is only a thin facade covering a dark, primitive, magical reality. Although I concentrate here exclusively on connections with shamanism, I want to emphasize that Buddhist practices described here (like the dbyangs chant cited below) are really Buddhist practices, done for Buddhist reasons, even if this side is totally ignored in describing them.

The central technique of shamanism, found also in Tibetan Bon, is the use of a religious "flight" to the world beyond, which is induced by means of music: drumming and singing. But although this technique seems consistent with shamanic ideology, it seems possible that the more basic and historically earlier practice is simply the use of music to call spirits to the shaman, the idea of flight being a later elaboration. Evidence for this will be presented below. My conclusion from this study is that the technique of musical flight practiced by shamans and the Tibetan Bon po is actually a symbolic recapitulation of the most important cultural advances made during the histories ot the Tibetan and the Inner and North Asian peoples.

Buddhism came to Tibet around the 7th century AD,, where it competed for centuries with the indigenous Tibetan Bon religion. At Mount Ti-se in Western Tibet, traditionally

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believed to be the center and summit of the world, Milaraspa (Milarepa), the Buddhist "singing monk", confronted the Bon magician Na ro Bon chung in a contest of miraculous powers, Which religion would prove to be the best vehicle for reaching the perfect state of being represented by the peak of the Cosmic Mountain?

Early in the morning, Na ro Bon chung, wearing a blue fur cloak, ringing a gShang (flat bell), and mounted on his drum, went flying into the sky...Then, as the sun was rising, Mila snapped his fingers once; and flying by spreading out his robes like wings, he instantly arrived at Ti-se's peak just as the sun rose....Then, when Na ro Bon chung arrived,...he was unable to stand the sight; he fell out of the sky, and his drum went rolling down the south slope of Ti-se. His pride and arrogance subdued, he begged permission to stay at the foot of Ti-se and practice his rites, which Mila let him do. (Mi la ras pa'i mGur 'bum: 103a-b) Indian Buddhist texts tell of flight produced by

"having clothed the body with the raiment of contemplation" (Kalingabodhi Jataka, cited in Eliade 1957: 109) that could "break through the roof of the palace" of the sensual and phenomenal world (Jataka and Dhammapada Atthakatha, ibid.); therefore, Milaraspa flies by spreading out his medifaTlon garments. But the Bon po had their own technique for religious elevation, the method used by Na ro Bon chung: musical flight.

Musical flight, particularly while "mounted on" or playing a drum, is the characteristic technique for inducing religious ecstasy in the Tibetan Bon ind the related shamanic religions of Inner and Northern Asia. Throughout most of Asia we find the use of this same technique, characterized by a number of basic similarities:

1. Symbolism; like the Bon po, the Asian shamans "fly to heaven" with their drums,

2. Function: the "flight" produced by the music is a state of religious ecstasy in which the player communicates with higher worlds and spirits,

3. Instruments and costume: frame drums are typical, along with some kind of metallophone; either a separate bell, or metal rings mounted on or in the drum. Costumes include animal and bird symbolism

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(especially furs, antlers, and eagle feathers); and a great deal of metal ornamentation, (Fig. 1)

4. Visualization: the drum, or the spirit the shaman rides while playing it, is seen as some animal (usually a horse or deer; sometimes a bird, bull, etc.

All of these basic elements are found in Tibetan musical flight.

Using music to get high is an appealing notion, and the Buddhists adapted the idea to their own purposes, along with the frame drum itself. Even Milaraspa borrowed Bon methods at times, as when he "chanted a Buddhist song to a Bon melody ...to cure a sick man by means of song" (Mi la ras pa'i mGur 'bum, 113-118). The Bon gods themselves were "tamed" and converted to Buddhism by the powerful Tantric master Padmasambhava (dPa' bo gtsug lag, 1565: 109ff). So it is hardly surprising to read of Buddhist teachers like Lha btsun, who flew to Sikkim (Waddell, 1895: 48-50), and brGya thung ba, who flew to India (Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 1956: 162), each by blowing on his thighbone trumpet. Similarly, the guru mentioned in the Deb ther sngon po rose after death through ascending levels of the sky as he chanted successive verses of a hymn (Yid bzang rtse gzhon nu dpal: 125). How- ever, while Buddhism has its own class of flying musician- spirits, called the Gandharvas (Tib. Dri za), musical flight by mortal men is identified by Buddhist authors as a specific, characteristically Bon practice. For instance, the 18th- century Grub mtha' shel kyi me long mentions a Bon teacher who, "having propitiated the fire and khyung (eagle) gods, could travel in the sky mounted on his drum" (Chos kyi nyi ma, 1740: 190). Similarly, the 16th-century historian dPa' bo gtsug lag 'phreng ba says (1565: lla-b):

...They all played the drum and gShang. They would fly to heaven mounted on c ay deer; and they would travel mounted on their drums. Many such sinful wonders are told of them.

These sources raise some interesting problems. For instance: granted that the deer would be a natural steed symbol among the North Asian reindeer pastoralists, why should the Bon po use a deer for their mount in Tibet, where the deer was never domesticated?

Bon and shamanist musical practice shed light on cultural problems like this. On the other hand, because shamanist ideology and symbolism directly shapes musical practices and forms, understanding some of the cultural context is a necessary prelude to understanding the music.

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We will look first at the ideology and symbolism of Bon and shamanic musical flight, then examine some Tibetan musical practices, and, finally, try to establish the cultural and historical context of the religious practice of musically induced "flight",

MUSICAL FLIGHT: IDEOLOGY AND SYMBOLISM; SHAMAN MUSIC

The Triple World

When the Bon po or Asian shaman mounts his drum, he either flies to heaven or the underworld or he calls spirits from there to come to him. His universe has three levels, each with its own kinds of spirits (Fig. 2):

Heaven Anthropomorphic gods, (or Great Shamans) Tib. Lha Dragons, (thunder & storm spiritsT Tib. 'Brug Eagles, (or other sun- or thunderbirdsTib. khyung

Earth Men/Shamans Domesticated animals/"Steed" spirits of shamans Wild animals/Other animal spirits

Underworld Water-snake spirits, Tib. kLu (lu) Earth master spirits, Tib. Sa bdag

This three-level symbolism leads directly to musical practices such as three-part song structures. If three is a holy number, nine is the holy of holies; there are nine (or 99) heavenly gods (Klementz 1955: 3); nine earthly grades of shaman; nine "witch sisters" (Hitchcock, Interview); and so on. "I heard this at the Circle of the highest nine-spoked Heaven;...with the Best of Mountains (Ti-se) at the foot of its none swastika-levels" (Rin chen nor bu 'od 'bar dbus phyogs: lb).

The Cosmic Tree grows at the top of the World Mountain, and connects the three levels (Fig. 3). The shaman's drum, or its frame, is growing in the trunk. The drum can give access to the upper and lower worlds because it is part of the tree that connects them with our world. Souls also grow on the tree, waiting to be born. They look either like skeletons, because bones are the essence of life (Eliade, 1951; 160; Lom- mel, 1967: 129ff), or like birds. The "soul-bird" of Tibet is the white crane, khrung (thun), which is associated both with ideas of transmigration and with the frame drum. The pole that supports the Tibetan frame drum is called rNga yu, from Yu ba, "Tree of life" (Das, 1902: 368, 1138).

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Animal Spirits

Spirits are either hostile or friendly. The shaman's job is to overcome the hostile ones with the help of the friendly ones; either by alliance with the supreme heaven- gods, or by the service of his own familiar, helper spirits. The helping spirits tend to have animal forms, The shaman imitates them by costume, action, and voice in order to become possessed by them or to transform himself into one of them. Through this procedure he obtains the powers of the animal spirits who are the mythical ancestors of his race (Eliade, 1951: 88ff).

Some are strong predators, like tigers or bears. Others, whom the shaman calls with his drum and shuts up inside it, to animate it, are his steeds. These are his most important helpers, because they are the power for his flight to the spirit worlds, or his messengers from there, And when they inhabit the drum, it becomes a riding animal: a horse for Yakut, Buryat, and Altaic shamans; black stag for some Mongol tribes; or the shaman's roebuck for the Karagas and Soyot (ibid,: 173-4). Likewise, horses and deer are associated with Tibetan musical flight.

The red, horned eagle khung also can be a steed (Fig. 4); in fact, for the Buryats the first shaman was an eagle (Klementz, 1955: 9). The Dragon, 'Brug (duk), is Thunder, 'Brug; and thunder is "the summer-born drCuT or the "secret drum of summer" (Das, 1902: 932, 914). Since thunder is a drum, and lightning a mirror, the shaman's drum and mirror both give access to heaven and control over weather. Turning to the underworld snake-spirits, it is interesting to note that the oldest Tibetan manuscripts freely interchange the two expres- sions gLu len (lu len), "sing a song", and kLu len (lu len), "catch a snake spirit" Mongol drumsticks are "piebald-snies" (Heissig, 1970; 322).

Ins truments

The shaman's drum is an ecological blend of animal skin and vegetable frame; by adding as a third element some kind of metallophone, we have the typical shaman ensemble, used with amazing consistency across the whole geographic, ethnic and linguistic spectrum of the shamanic peoples of Asia (see map),

The drum is typically a shallow, oval or circular, one- skinned frame drum sketches of construction of a shaman drum are given in Dioszegi, 1963: 291ff). Usually there is a handle inside the drum, consisting of two crossed sticks carved to represent the "master of the drum"; in the Nepali shaman's

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drum the handling sticks form an inverted V, and the anthropomorphic figure is painted on the drumskin, Some Mongol, Manchurian, Eskimo, etc, drums have changed, possibly due to influence of the Tibetan drum, from an internal handle to a vertical pole mounted perpendicularly to the bottom of the frame (ills. in Heissig, 1970). And in at least one case, metal technology has replaced the wooden frame with an iron one. But the drum ought to have a wooden frame, because it receives its religious power from joining spirit animal and Cosmic Tree in the shaman's hand.

The drum is a living thing; and so it has to be revived by sprinkling liquids on it (Partanen, 1941: 19-20). The revived animal may then tell, through the shaman, about its life, its parents, etc. (Eliade, 1951: 170-171). Here we find similar genaeologies of instruments in Tibet and Mongolia. The surface of the drumskin is often painted with images of the animal helping spirits (Fig. 5b). Cosmological symbols are the other typical element used to decorate the drumskin (Fig. 5a, 5c). Chinese bronze drums carried the same cosmological symbolism.

Metallophones are usually incorporated into the drum, as a set of iron rings mounted on a crossbar. A separate bell, as in Tibet, is rare; although a Mongolian manuscript records its use at one time among the Buryat (Partanen, 1941: 20). But along with the drum, some kind of metallophone is nearly always present -- even if only in the form of jangling metal ornaments on the shaman's costume.

Other instruments are sometimes used: possibly the musical bow (Eliade, 1951: 175), and certainly the fiddle (Castagne, 1930: 67-68; Eliade, 1951: 221). The fiddle, like the drum, is played to induce a "flight" experience (Castagn4) and to accompany narratives of the shaman's adventures in the spirit world (Eliade). The Jew's-harp is also used by shamans as an instrument associated with divination practices (Klementa, 1955: 16). Further objects of interest are the bow and arrow, mirror, and animal skins.

Shaman music: Forms and Techniques Because the shaman's ideology and musical instruments

show a remarkable degree of consistency throughout Asia, we would also expect some consistency in musical practice, And in fact, even from the general accounts of observers, it becomes clear that certain features are characteristic of shamanic music;

1, Virtuoso playing. The shaman produces a wide range of coloristic effects and complex rhythms on his drum; which are contrasted with;

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2. Steadiness and Monotony, Concentration is aided by long periods of drumming in steady, duple rhythm; songs are strophic, with slight variation of text and melody from one verse to the next.

3. Growth of intensity. Both the loudness and the speed of the music grow as the seance progresses, moving towards the climax of the moment of contact with or possession by the helping spirits.

4. Special Vocal Techniques. These include slides up to a note or down from it and such spectacular alterations of the voice as ventriloquism (Bogoras, 1904: 435) and the imitation of animal- spirit sounds,

If we consider the performance of the Nepalese shaman Sakrante, (recorded by Professor John Hitchcock), we see that he actually begins his seance by gathering the spirits by means of some rather complex drum signals (Fig. 6), which quickly shift into a steady 2/4 rhythm as he goes into his song (transcribed on map).

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r P n

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hS J I iI" I ia

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Fig, 6 Shaman drumming to "call the gods" (Pitches approximate) Later, during the actual possession, as he sings the "Song of the Nine Witch Sisters", he goes into a series of rhythmic wheezes and grunts, sounding like some large animal (Hitchcock: Tapes).

If we look at the transcription of this song, we see two more characteristics which apply to other songs by the same shaman:

5. Falling Melodic Contour. The song begins at the high octave of its final note, rises to a momentary peak at a slightly higher pitch, and falls to a

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cadence an octave lower; the verse is then repeated. This is the type of melody Curt Sachs called a "tumbling strain", and described as one of the most "archaic" forms of melody (Sachs, 1961: 51ff).

6. Pentatonic scale. (five tones and no half-step intervals). Comparison with published transcriptions of shaman melodies shows that in fact the falling melodic contour appears remarkably often over a wide geographical area (map). This type of melody is associated with shamanism in Nepal (Hitchcock: Tapes), Soviet Central Asia (Castagnd, 1930: 70), Manchuria (Shirokogoroff, 1924: 119-120; and Yasser, 1926: 12, 15), in Northern Siberia among the Yakut (Yasser, 1926: 15) and the Samoyeds further west (Galdi, 1963: 144), and in Southern Siberia among the Buryat Mongols (Yasser, 1926: 14). If the transcriptions are accurate, not all melodies are pentatonic or anhemitonic, suggesting that perhaps this scale structure is a later imposition on the basic falling pattern. The amount of fall ranges from a fifth to an octave. Even if most of the transcriptions are inaccurate, it is still clear that a falling pitch level characterizes the shaman's chant melodies over a very wide area.

MUSICAL FLIGHT AND TIBETAN MUSIC

Musicians and Musical Forms

The singer of the Tibetan national epic may look as ordinary as his everyday occupation or, if a professional, his appearance may be more exotic. But when he recites from memory the more than 17,000 verses telling the story of King Gesar, "some say he has a god who comes to him and helps him to remember" (Sopa; Interview). And when he goes from spoken declamatory recitation into one of the traditional melodies associated with a particular character or situation in the epic, what he actually does is to "draw" or "invite" a horse (Stein, 1956: 193, 197, etc.), the melodic horse which carries the words and their meanings and moods (Stein, 1959). The association of music, the horse, spiritual helpers, and possession or trance, probably derives from shamanic origins, as Rolf Stein has suggested. (Fig. 7 recorded example on Jest, 1966; Side A)

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Spoken (pitches not accurate)

Sung r tone higher

17ai'f A[ i LP -

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--J'- *'breaths (,) stronrily audible, used as rhythm-ic marker

Fig. 7 Transcription of Gesar song

The same idea is found in mainstream Buddhism in the concept of rTa dbyangs -- "horse chants." "The dbYangs (melismatic chant) is a rTa (horse) because it carries the message" (Sopa, Interview-. In a deeper sense, the chanting is a means of access to religious truth, and so is a horse when effectively taught by a qualified teacher to a capable learner (Ibid.).

dbYangs (yang) is one of a large variety of special vocal techniques found in Tibet; they range from the yodel- like singing in the nomad style, recorded by Crossley-Holland (1961d), to the artificially deepened voice of a boy Lama (Waddell, 1895: 322), to an 18th-century report that "Thibettan dogs...are well fed...with much milk to increase the hoarseness of their bark" (Desideri, 1932: 126). dbYangs also aims at the production of a deep, resonant sound; its other distinguishing feature is the frequent use of glissando, sliding from high to low pitches and vice versa (Sherap Gyaltsen, Interview; Sopa, Interview). Slides like these are part of shamanic vocal technique (Shirokogoroff, 1924; 119; Yasser, 1926: 12, 15.) And certain dbYangs styles are associated with the imitation of animals. All over Tibet the dbU mdzad (.ndze), chant leaders, use the "voice of the hybrid yak", mDzo skad (dzoke'), to make themselves heard in large assemblies (Rakra, Interview; Sopa, Interview), And the monks of the Lower Tantric Colege, rGyud smad Grva tshang (Gyum~

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Tatsang), chant in "The Roar of the Slayer of Death", gShin rje'i Ngar skad (Shinjee n~arkg; recorded on Crossley- Holland, 1961c: Side 2; and Smith, 1970: Side 1). A former resident of the school told me: "Because death is powerful

in this world, there must be something powerful to fight against it. This is represented by gShin rje gShed (Shnije Sh), the Slayer of Death. Singing with his voice helps us to develop in ourselves those forces which overcome the power of death" (Tseten; Interview). gShin rje gshed is visualized with a yak's head as rDo rje 'Jigs byed (Dhrie Jogie), "Diamond Terrorizer" or "Supreme Inspirer of Dread"; and another former resident of rGyud smad pointed out that gShin rje'i Ngar skad is "like the voice of a bull" (Rakra; Interview). A tradition recorded by Jeanette Snyder (Inter- view) also connects the dbYangs style with the roaring of tigers. We have in dbYangs chant a special vocal technique said to have originated in India (Tseten; Interview); which nevertheless exhibits shamanic features such as animal imitation, internalization of helping spiritual forces, and association with the idea of a horse. In many cases, it is chanted to the accompaniment of drums and metallophones only (cf. recordings Crossley-Holland, 1961c, and Smith, 1970). It should be noted that the Bon po have their own dbYangs, such as the Bon gSar ba'i sGra dbyang(s) Seng ge'i Nga ro, which are not supposed to have come from India, and that they had them in Milaraspa's time, (11th century; Mi la ras pa'i mGur 'bum: 113).

Outside the monasteries, there are other musicians who may have inherited parts of the shaman's function. At the New Year festival, travelling musicians called "dre dkar, or 'bras dkar (de kaa) appear, wearing costumes which include feathers, a mirror, and a staff with bells, and singing of their visits to divine Paradises (Bell, 1928: 136, 275; Tucci, 1966: 17, 27-28, 45-46; Norbu, 1966: 135-139, 150-151). Relationships of other classes of storytellers (or rather, singers) to special groups in the Bon priesthood have been discussed by Tucci (1970: 257-264). Because the shaman dances and sings an account of his adventures in the other world, we might suspect a shamanic origin or influencing of Tibetan dance-dramas like the A che Lha mo. Lha mo masks strongly resemble the masks worn by Tungus shamans (Lommel, 1967: 87, 92).

The religious 'cham dances show gods and events of the next world, like the shaman dances; Eliade (1951: 435) points out the educational/initiatory function of such portrayals. Skeleton costumes (Fig. 8) resemble those of North Asian shamans (Ibid.). 'Cham masks are amazingly similar to American Indian shaman masks (compare Lommel, 1967; 117 and 122, with 'cham masks). Mask diffusion is a good indicator

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of the historical relationship of Asian and North American shamanism; the double-faced American shaman mask shown by Lommel (1967: 120) is a slightly more abstract duplicate of the mask worn in the Japanese Lion Dance Kotobuki Jishi by the comic character Toshi. 'Cham music, like monastery liturgical music, is dominated by drums and metallophones (recorded on Bourguignon, 1955: Side 1) In the Drum Dance, rNga 'cham (nga cham), one of the three types of 'cham (Chos rgyal: 143), the dancers carry and play drums, like the shamans.

A different sort of drama is performed by the Cod pa (chIbpa), "Cutter", who cuts off and sacrifices the illusion of the "self". He goes to a lonely place, taking with him

For dazzling and overcoming the Proud (demons representing self-pride),

The hide of a beast of prey, with four sets of claws;

The tent of high-pitched aspiration; The dagger of downward-climbing action; The thighbone "flute" (=trumpet) that subjugates

gods and demons; The damaru (hourglass drum) that overpowers

apparitions; The chanting-bell that subjugates hosts of

demonesses; Tiger and leopard clothing, and a crown. (gCod yul: 1)

Then he "fiercely blows the human thighbone flute"; and, like a shaman, "dances a dance that beats gods and demons to the ground," -- except here, according to the Buddhist context, they are bdag 'dzin lha 'dre: holding a belief in the ego, the most dangerous demons of all. He invites past teachers of his religious lineage, along with his helping gods and spirits, to come and watch as his steps thunder on their heads. As he dances, he "sounds the flute of Mirror (-like) Wisdom", "sounds the human-skull drum of the Wisdom of Equanimity", "rings the bell of the Wisdom of Detailed Analysis", and "sings the song of Hum of the Wisdom of the Realm of the Absolute" (gCod yul: 2-3). Finally, he offers himself to fierce spirits as a sacrifice, who smash and tear his body apart, after which "it is eaten by many predators, without a trace left over" (Ibid.: 7). He also has to sing with various animal sounds: "startling, like the sound of a neighing horse;...fiercely, like a raging tigress' roar", etc. (Ibid., 8). The instruments, costume, dance, invitation of helping spirits, subduing of "enemies", and animal sounds are all characteristic of shamanism.

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Non-monastic religious practitioners such as weathermakers, diviners, and mediums, come closer still to the function of the shaman. Weather control is a very ancient and basic Tibetan tradition. Tibetan weathermakers were famous in China in Marco Polo's day (Polo 1299: 109-110, 190); and Milaraspa began his religious career by learning weather ritual, with which he destroyed his enemies' crops (Evans-Wentz 1928: 77-79). Music is especially important for weathermakers because of two kinds of mythical equiva- lences: trumpet-shell-water-rain; and drum-thunder-dragon; these will be discussed under the respective instruments below. Divination is practiced in many ways, including the use of arrows, and drum-divination, practiced by Lapp shamans, is also perforifed in Tibet. The drumskin is divided into segments, grains are scattered on it, and the diviner beats another drum nearby and watches the movements of the grain produced by sympathetic vibration (Nebesky- Wojkowitz 1952: 149-157, and 1956: 457-460; 1956: 471 and 474-475 also gives information on weather music), Various classes of mediums claim to speak with the voice of the spirit who possesses them and, like the shaman, they use chanting, drums, and metallophones to induce the possession (the trance of a Lha pa medium is recorded on Jest 1966: Side 1; descriptions of mediums are given in Nebesky- Wojkowitz 1956; and Hermanns 1970).

The most spectacular communicating with the deities is done by the "oracles", bsrung ma (sungma), people chosen by one of the divine "Defenders of the Faith" as a human habitation and mouthpiece, Like the shaman's seance, the oracle's consultation session requires a special uniform which includes eagle feathers, a great deal of metal ornamentation, including metal helmet and mirror, a bow and arrow, multicolored cloth ribbons and a tiger skin (photos of oracles: Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 1956, and Rock, 1959). And, like the shaman, the oracle enters his trance with the help of music. The most famous of the srung ma is the official Tibetan state oracle from the monastery of gNas chung (nechung) near Lhasa, inhabited by the fierce deity Pe har (description in Nebesky-Wojkowitz 1948; Schafer 1949, quoted in Hermanns, 1970; other oracles descr. in N-W, 1956, and Rock, 1959). The ritual of Pe har at gNas chung begins with the instructions: "Sound the cymbals, beat the drums, and blow the trumpets, to invite the King of Tormented Melody (gDung ba'i dbyangs)" (Myang nyi ma 'od zer: 50). In a film by Sch-fer (1939), an ensemble of several dozen drums surrounds the oracle. Accounts of the session make it clear that the music becomes louder and faster, and at the climax, just before Pe har takes control, two assistants step up to the oracle and blow trumpets directly into his ears

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(Nebesky-Wojkowitz 1956: 430). The deity possesses him; the oracle dances, collapses, and delivers the god's message in whispers, mumbles, groans, or some other unusual vocal effect. Rock describes an oracle "whining like a little dog" (1959: 812); another who "puffs, growls, spits (as he eats the still-beating heart of a sacrificed sheep!) and makes gurgling sounds (Ibid., 814-815); and a woman oracle whose voice would change to "a deep basso" (Ibid., 816-817).

Musical Instruments

Any recording of Tibetan music proves convincingly the importance of drums and metallophones in Tibet. Of course, drums are also of great importance in India, especially in Buddhism, where the teachings of the Buddha are often called a great drum. But the Buddhist authors themselves describe the drum as a Bon characteristic. As one Buddhist scholar told me, "these drums were used in Tibet for centuries before Buddhism came." (Rakra: Interview).

The Tibetan pole drum, Chos rnga (chd nga), differs from the shaman's frame drum by the addition of a second skin and an external vertical handle. Its name, "(Buddhist) Religious Drum", contrasts with Bon po'i rNga, "Drum of the Bon po", or Phyed rNga (che n a), "Half-drum", the names for the one-sided frame drum used by the Bon po. The Phyed rnga may have, like the drums of some Manchurian and Mongol shamans, 9 iron rings added to it to symbolize the 9 heavens (Heissig, 1970: 318, 312-322). As mentioned above, names for parts of the drum suggest a shamanic origin. The wooden frame is called rNga shing, "drum tree", recalling the shaman's making of his drum frame from the Cosmic Tree; and the handle is called Yu ba, "Tree of Life".

Decoration of the drum also reveals its origins. Dragons ('Brug)recall the equivalence of the drum and thunder ('Brug), and its use as a weather instrument. The figures on the Chos rngaBuddhist goddesses of worship, recall the portrayal of spirits on shaman drums, And the crane in the center is shamanic: the "spirit bird" of the Enets (Prokofyeva, 1963; 131-132), and the bird who carries away the souls of the dead in China (Williams, 1932: 100) -- a "steed" of the soul, and also an echo of the image of the "soul birds" perched on the branches of the tree of life. One of the best-known songs in Tibet, written by the Sixth Dalai Lama, is widely thought to be his prophecy of his rebirth;

Bird, there! White crane' White crane! Lend to me one skillful wing, Far or long I will not go; From Li thang I'll return again, (Tshangs dbyangs rgya mtsho: 6)

-17-


The hourglass drum (Damaru) comes to replace the frame drum in many cases, by a process described by Nebesky-Wojkowitz (1952, 1956). Thus, the drum used by the gCod pa is a damaru, and so is the drum used by a medium recorded by Jest (1966: Side 1). It has been suggested that the hourglass drum, despite widespread use of the Sanskrit name, originated in Tibet as the drum made from two human skulls (thod rnga). But if the Tibetan sources are any indication, the use of human bones was introduced from India by the Buddhists, and was hotly opposed by adherents of Bon:

The so-called Kapala is a human head on a stand; What is said to be a bone trumpet is a human thighbone;...

These "dancers" are people wearing garlands of bones...

This is no "religion"; this is evil that comes to Tibet from India'

(Padma'i rNam thar: 284a) On the other hand, instruments made of animal bones probably were in use in Tibet before Buddhism. Bone flutes and trumpets in Tibet, besides those made from human bones, include those made from the bones of eagles, sheep (Hermanns, 1959: 238) and tigers (Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 1956: 398), all animals which are symbolically significant in Bon. The eagle is especially interesting, since the horned eagle khung is also a "steed". The human thighbone trumpet, rKang dung (kan~ dung), is more usually called rKang gling (kan_ ling),

Thighbone Flute", indicating that te prototype was a flute rather than a trumpet (dung).

Conch shell trumpets (dung) were used by the Bon prior to the coming of Buddhism (Tun-huang Ms. 1042: line 58-64). Paradoxically, they seem now to be mainly a Buddhist instrument, probably because they have great symbolic significance in Buddhism, while the Bon use as trumpets the Buddhist rKang gling thighbone trumpets. The conch, as the shell of a water animal, is related to water, sea monsters, dragons and rain, and is often decorated with dragon or sea-monster figures. Other trumpets also carry these images and it is interesting to note that their heads carry either the tusks of musk-deer or the antlers of larger deer. The colored cloth streamers attached to wind instruments may originally have represented the rainbow, both a weather sign and the shaman's bridge to the sky.

The gShang (shang), the flat bell of the Bon po, was probably the original metallophone of their "flight" ensemble, One text, the Padma'i rNam thar (116-117), asso- ciates Bon with the Khar rnga, gong, or literally "bronze drum",

-18-


I

I

MAP 2: DISTRIBUTION OF HORSE-HEADED AND P1-WANG (2-STRING FIDDLE) - TYPE LUTES Ca toc~rafAt Dxk O'ut ine

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Jew's-harps may have been associated with shamanic practices in Tibet, as they were in Mongolia, They appear in groups of 3: "male", low; "middle"; and "female", high (Rockhill; 1895: 715), like the set of three trumpets once used in Bon funerals (Tun-huang Ms, 1042).

An instrument that deserves special attention is the horse-headed lute sGra snyan (dany) with six fretless strings in three double courses, skin-covered soundbox, and two barb- shaped projections on either side of soundbox. It is played with a plectrum or (in Western Tibet) bowed, and is made in small, (chung chung), and large, (chen po) sizes. It has some resemblance to the horse-headed khil khuur bowed lute of the Mongols (illustrations in Emsheimer 1943: 84, Plate IV), and perhaps is also related to the bowed lute called Pi wang in Tibet and Erh hu in China.

Diffusion of the two-stringed Pi wang extends in an arc from India through Southeast Asia, Indonesia, China and on into Mongolia and parts of Siberia (Kishibe, 1936: Plate 15; Sachs, 1929: 186). The center of this arc is Tibet. According to a recent study by Tsuge and Grame (1970: 8-9), the diffusion of horse-headed chordophones includes mainly "areas that are bounded on the east by Mongolia and Tibet, and in the west by Lithuania and the Balkans." If we add the horse-headed P'i p'a found in South China and Vietnam (illustrated on UNESCO-Collection: A Musical Anthology of the Orient: Viet-nam I), we have another diffusion-arc centering on Tibet (Map 2). Considering the horse-headed P'i p'a of South China, it is interesting that the dragon- headed Erh hu or Pi wang is called by the name of Nan hu, or "Southern Barbarian" (fiddle). Also, the fact that the horse-headed sGra snyan may be either plucked or bowed in Tibet, and the fact that the name Pi wang which now means "fiddle" in classical Tibetan meant "plucked lute" (the name derives from Sanskrit Vina), both suggest a blurring of the boundary between plucked and bowed lutes in Tibet.

Furthermore, the dragon and the horse that appear on the two instruments, are related in shamanic ideology. The dragon serves as a steed for flight to heaven in some Chinese myths (Eliade, 1951: 449). Some shamans use a wooden staff carved with a horse's head as a horse. This staff has been inherited by the Chinese god of long life, known in Tibet as the rGan dkar (Can kaa)i "Old White One" and it may have either a horse's or a dragon's head, Finally, the lute itself in Tibetan paintings is shown with either the head of a horse, a sea-monster (=dragon, Fig. 9), or the horned eagle khyung. In other words, the Tibetan lute is identified with the two heavenly spirit-animals of shamanism, and with the

-20-


horse which flies to heaven. The Tibetan lute can also appear with the head of a unicorn, termed a species of deer in Tibet but called the "dragon horse" in China (Williams, 1932: 410). Waddell (1895: 410-412) connects the "Wind- Horse" of the Tibetan prayer flags with the Chinese "dragon horse".

Structurally, forms like the khil-khuur and the Pi wang (skin-covered wooden frames or cylinders pierced by a stick) are a combination of two important shamanic tools of flight: a drum, and a horse-(or dragon-)headed staff, A Mongol legend told by Haslund-Christensei (1943: 35-37) gives the origin of the khil knuur as a horse who carried his rider between the heavens and the earth. A Tibetan song reported by Francke recounts the genaeology of the tree and animal parts of a sGra snyan in a way reminiscent of the "auto- biographies" given through the shaman by his reanimated drum.

Lutes are actually used by some shamans (see Section II). If the translation of an ambiguous passage in the Tun- Huang Manuscript #1042 as read by M. Lalou (1952: 352) is correct, 'beautiful instruments of music with horse ornaments" were used in the funeral rites of the Bon po in pre- Buddhist Tibet. This would positively identify the horse- head lute with ideas of the soul's flight to heaven, and establish it as one of the oldest Tibetan instruments. However, the translation is still uncertain.

Musical Structure

What was the flight music of the Bon po actually like? We have an eighth-century Chinese description of the Bon priests in an attacking Tibetan army that might almost have been written by General Custer:

.,.Sorcerers wearing feathered headdresses and wrapped in hides of tigers were beating drums...

(Pelliot, 1961: 130) And a picture of their music is presented in the Tibetan historical drama Khri srong ide btsan (Thisong detsen), recorded by DebenBShattacharya (1968: Side i) (transcr. Fig. 10).

prip*3) .E~"x ~\B n.n

O cesRo sobsa sn F X igo. id raft sTmBi a11T A: f a 11 slide B:call

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Besides the dominance of drums and metallophones, and the variety of rhythms played on them, we should note two other features: the dramatic, drawn-out descending vocal slides, repeated three times; and the trumpet-like vocal calls, also repeated three times. Comparing this recording with the only commercial recording of present-day Bon music, the "Dance of the Wild Yak" recorded by Jest (1966: Side 1), we find again the drums and metallophones, three calls on a thighbone trumpet and a drawn-out descending song on a pentatonic scale (transcr. on Map 1). The feature's we can observe of Bon musical structure, then, are the following.

1, Virtuoso playing of the dominant drums and metallophones. The Bon po have "300 ways of playing the drum" (Don dam smra ba'i seng ge: 456); and they have to play long, complex rhythmic patterns both forwards and backwards(Seng ge'i Nga ro: 6b). There is a percussion notation, probably indigenous to Tibet, that uses large and small circles to indicate loud and soft beats (Fig. 11).

2. Steadiness and repetition. Songs are accompanied by drum beats in steady, duple rhythm (Map 1). Bon liturgical texts can go on for page after page repeating the same verse, with only one or two words changed at each repetition (g.Yung bskyabs dbu phyogs). Especially evident is

2a. Three-part structure, deriving from the cosmological symbolism of the three-level world. Verses may be organized in groups of three lines (Ibid.) and the longer drum rhythms, (on the Jest recording and in the score shown in Fig. 11) are organized into three- part, A B A groupings of beats. For example, the first group of circles, lines 4-5, has a 6-beat introduction, then 3 groups of 11 beats each, and a short cadence figure. The song recorded by Jest seems to be in triple (6/8) meter. Triple meters are rare in Tibetan religious music, although they do occur in yoga songs recorded by Professor Stephan Beyer.

3, Growth of intensity, Use of increasing loudness and speed to induce possession can be inferred from the use of crescendo and accelerando techniques in oracle music as described above,

4, Special Vocal Techniques. Besides those already described, whistles (so sgra, "teeth voice") and shouts are heard on the recordings, Also, the vocal slides and slurs heard in dbyangs chant may

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have had a Bon origin: "chanting in dbyangs without cutting the words is the 'Bon po Sound" (Don dam smra ba'i seng ge: 503),

5. Falling Melodic Contour, in both the historical play and the chant of the Bon dance; and

6. Pentatonic scale in the chant on the Jest recording. These are the same stylistic features found in much of shamanic music. It would therefore seem that Tibetan Bon religion, with its ideas of musical "flight", blends into the tradition of Asian shamanism musically, as well as ideologically, and that the whole Bon-shamanist cultural complex shows a remarkable homogeneity in the ideology, instrumentation, and structures of its religious music. Given this, let us now explore the cultural significance of musical flight with the help of Tibetan sources.

THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MUSICAL FLIGHT

One of the oldest detable motifs in Asian mythology is that of the listening deer. It appears in the form of two deer flanking a priest on seals from Mohenjo-Daro, earlier than 2000 B.C. (Wheeler, 1966: 38), and was adopted by Buddhism two thousand years later to symbolize the Buddha's first sermon, "turning the wheel of the Law", in the Deer Park at Benares. Figures of two deer, or unicorn deer, crouching attentively before a symbolic wheel, decorate the roofs of Tibetan Buddhist temples from Lhasa to Leningrad. But the same motif is a characteristic element in the art of Siberian shamanism also especially in shamanist art that is not influenced by Buddhist styles or motifs. The idea behind it is in fact pre-Buddhist, the concept of the deer as a lover of music.

The basis of this idea is given in the rDzogs chen kun bzang bla ma (translated in Guenther, 1959: 39):

When you hear the explanation of the Dharma, like deer enamoured of the sound of the lute and though shot by a stray hunter with a poisoned arrow, unable to understand or think what has happened, you must listen...with the hairs on your body rising with joy, with eyes filled with tears, with hands folded, and not distracted by other thoughts.

A Tibetan monk explained this by saying he believed Tibetan hunters had actually used music to attract deer (Sopa, Inter- view), as the passage itself implies, Musical deer hunting

-23-


is a widespread practice in Asia: it is used by the Miao of South China and Northern Thailand (Bernatzik 1947: 463), by the Tungus of Manchuria (Shirokogoroff. 1924: 118-120), and by the Evenks of Central Siberia (Vasilevich and Smolyak 1956: 626-629). In every case, a musical instrument is used for the same purpose: to imitate the deer's mating call (Ibid).

Buston's History of Buddhism (Chos 'byung) tells us more: during a period of persecution, Buddhist monks who refused to give up their religion were sent out "as hunters". This was an insult to their vows of non-violence. For this, they were given "a bow and arrow, a drum, and a gShang". It seems, therefore, that the characteristic instruments of the Bon po were actually hunters' instruments. Linguistic evidence seems to support this:

"to bend" a bow =rDung ba ="to beat" a drum

"to shoot" an arrow ='grol ba (th8l wa) v

'khrol ba (th8l wa) ="to play" a gShang or lute

The Tibetan drumstick is shaped like a bow, and in paintings is sometimes impossible to distinguish from a bow.

Interestingly, too, Shirokogoroff gives a Tungus song said to be based on imitation of the deer's love call (transcr. on Map 1). It shows the same falling melodic contour we find in many shamanic chants.

All of these areas where deer are hunted with instruments are shamanic regions. The shaman begins his seance by drumming and singing to "call" and "gather" his spirits to him. Similarly, one of the principal uses of instrumental music in Tibetan religion is for spyan drangs: "invitation"; or literally, the "drawing before the eyes" of the deity to be worshipped. The music is played "to get his attention" (Sopa; Interview) or to call to "invite" him to come to the worship. Just as Tantric Buddhist music derived from hunters' use of instruments to "beat the bush" and frighten game out of hiding, it would seem that shaman music begins with music played by hunters to attract deer to come to them. In Tibet, where deer were not domesticated, but were hunted musically, the deer was chosen for the shaman's steed,

"For Bon, a deer with wide horns was needed;" When the Bon po's caught a living deer, they would sing.

(Padma'i rNam thar; 292)

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But musical flight as a religious technique cannot be totally explained by the musical techniques of a hunting culture. Obviously, a concept of heaven and heavenly spirits is needed. And just as important is the question: Once you've lured a wild spirit (or animal) to you and trapped him, what can you do 'with him? To be of any use, he has to be subdued, tamed, converted into a "steed". Only then is flight possible.

"Taming" or "subduing", ('dul ba), is a very important concept in Tibetan Buddhism. It expresses the monastic discipline of the Sanskrit Vinaya. But taming was an important concept in Tibet before Buddhism. Erik Haarh (1969: 231-9) has shown in a recent study that both Buddhist and Bon legend of the religious conversion of Tibet, as well as the legend of the foundation of the Tibetan monarchy, center on the theme of taming or subduing the country and its wild demons. In fact, the contrast between tame and wild is one of the dominant themes of the pre-Buddhist Tun-huang manuscripts:

/The rebel7 dGu gri zing po rje, was Tamed, from his ankles to his mouth. (T-H Ms. 250: 108) Oh' in the Northern plains There are nothing but wild yaks and yak-cows. To kill the yaks of the Northern plain Yell "khus'" from above to the valley,... And from below, signalling, So, between the two Both wild yak and yak-cow are killed... By the tiger the deer is caught. (Ibid: 116)

The yak, as important a domestic animal in Tibetan culture as is the automobile in ours, is characteristically shown as a fierce, raging beast that charges around graveyards with lions, tigers, vultures and equally ferocious black deer In fact, tame and wild yaks are called by different names: gYag (yak) for the tame, and 'Brong (dong) for the wild. Tte

"Dance of the Wild Yak" recorded by Jest is probably a descendant of the "Ritual of the Yak" performed by Bon priests at the tomb of the Tibetan king 1200 years ago (T-H Ms. 1042: line 108). All of this cultural significance o- the contrast between tame and wild, centered in Tibetan culture on the yak, is not surprising in a pastoralist culture. And the religious significance is shown, among other ways, in religious music: 'dul ba, ("taming" or "subduing"), is a drum pattern used by the Bon po in their rituals (Seng ge'i Nga ro: lb).

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After the shaman drums the spirits to him, he may or may not mount them and fly to heaven. If he does, they become his steeds, and he himself becomes a sort of nomadic pastoralist who tames and rides spirits, rather than just hunts them. The idea is absolutely necessary for any concept of flight, and it reflects a real advance from hunting to nomadic pastoralism once made by the Tibetans, Mongol horse cultures, and Siberian reindeer cultures.

The importance of metal in the shaman's gear is further clarified in the Tibetan sources:

Before the last two years, The wild male and female yaks Were killed by bamboo from the south. But without iron that cuts, Bamboo alone couldn't pierce. Without the vulture's claws, The arrow wouldn't bother the yak. The tanner of Ngas-po, goat-country, Has conquered the leopardess. But with no needle to pierce The thread could do nothing. (T-H Ms. 250: 108)

Metal technology is of the greatest importance to both hunting and taming of animals. The shaman adopts and transforms metal, as he did hunting music and the concept of taming a steed, making of it a religious symbol and a symbolic tool of his own activity.

Even before Buddhism came to Tibet, Bon was no longer purely shamanic. The king had assumed several shamanic functions, and the Bon po had taken on the role of a sacrific- ing priesthood, Formation of the kingdom united for the first time the nomadic pastoralists and the agriculturalists of the Southern river valleys into a functioning society, dPa bo gtsug lag's History, interestingly, makes the beginnings of agriculture contemporary with the discovery of metal technology (1565: 64b). And since the.king himself is the iron "point of the arrow" that subdues the wild yak, he combines in himself the symbol of advance to both pastoralist and agricul- turalist cultures. The king also took over the function of the ascent to and descent from heaven in Tibet. Thus, he exercised the chief shamanic powers, of flight and of subduing the fierce spirits, for the whole Tibetan society,

-26-


Musical flight remained an important theme in Bon, even in its later, Buddhist-influenced forms. And the idea of musical ecstatic flight has left its traces in Tibetan religious and musical culture down to the present day.

SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1 Pallas, 1777:111, P.V

Fig. 2 Ivanov, 1954: 261

Fig. 3 Ivanov, 1954: 268

Fig. 4 FM 125543*

Fig. 5 A: Nebesky-Wojkowitz, 1952: 154 B & C: Goloubew, 1923: Pl. XXII

Fig. 6 Transcription


Fig. 8 FM 125534

Fig. 9 FM 121376


Fig. 11 FM 522

SOURCES OF MUSICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS

Tibet: Gesar Epic (Fig. 7) recorded & transcribed by T.

Ellingson. Historical drama (Fig. 10) rec, Bhattacharya (1968),

transc. Ellingson, Bon dance (Map I) rec. Jest (1966), transc. Ellingson.

"FM" numbers are numbers in the collection of the Field Museum of Natural History Tibetan Collection in Chicago.

-27-


Nepal: Shaman chant (Fig. 6 & Map I) rec. Hitchcock, tr.

Ellingson.

Kirghiz; Shaman chant (Map I) rec. (?) & transc. Castagne

(1930). Manchurian & Tungus:

3 songs (Map I) rec, & transcr. Shirokogoroff (1924); drum accompaniment for 1 song transc. Yasser (1926).

Samoyed: Shaman chant (Map I) rec. in Pushkin House, Leningrad; transcr. E. SzBnyis; in Galdi 1963.

Buriat: Shaman chant (Map I) transcr. R. Ivanoff; in Yasser

(1926). Yakut;

Shaman chant (Map I) rec. J. Strojezki, transc. A. Masloff; in Yasser (1926).

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-32-


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-33-


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-35-


Yid bzang rtse gZhon nu dpal 1949 The Blue Annals. Tr. by G. Roerich of Deb

Ther sNgon po. RASB Monograph No. 7. Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Tibetan Texts

gCod yul (kLong chen snying gi thig le las; gcod yul mkha' gro'i gad rgyangs). English translation in

Evans-Wentz 1935.

Chos kyi nyi ma, Grub mtha' shel kyi me long. Partial text bLo bzang (1740) and English translation in Das 1881. Don dam smra ba'i bShad mdzod Yid bzhin nor bu. Brief Seng ge citations in Haarh 1969.

Padma'i rNam thar. Partial text and German translation in Hoffmann 1950.

dPa' bo gtsug lag Chos 'byung. 1565. 'phreng ba

Bu ston rin chen Chos 'byung. 1322. Text excerpts and German sgrub pa translation in Hoffmann 1950; English

translation in Bu ston (tr. Obermiller). Bon gsar ba'i sgra dbyangs Seng ge'i Nga ro.

Mi la mGur 'bum (rJe btsun Mi la ras pa'i rNam thar rgyas par phye ba mGur 'bum). Peking, n.d. English translation in Chang, 1962.

Mi la rNam thar. (rJe btsun Mi la ras pa'i rNam thar bKa' 'bum). English translation in Evans-

Wentz, 1928.

Myang nyi ma 'od rGyal po chen po sku Inga'i gsol mchod zer 'phrin las don bcu pa. In gNas chung Chos

spyod. Gangtok, 1969.

Tshangs dbyangs mGur glu. English translation in Tshangs rgya mtsho dbyangs, Tr., YU, & Chao.

Yid bzang rtse Deb ther sngon po. English translation in gzhon nu dpal Yid bzang rtse, Tr. Roerich.

-36-


gYung bskyabs dbu phyogs. Rin chen nor bu 'od 'bar dbu phyogs. Untitled. Tun-Huang Manuscript No. 250. French translation

in Bacot, Thomas, & Toussaint, 1940. Untitled. Tun-Huang Manuscript No. 1042. Text and French

translation in Lalou, 1952.

Note on translations: Translations of Tibetan texts are always musicologically inaccurate (some, such as Haarh, are suspect on nonmusical grounds as well). Lutes are "banjos", oboes or shawms are "flutes" or "trumpets", bells are "drums", and anything at all can be a "tambourine". Translations in this paper are correct, and should be com- pared with the illustrations shown.

-37-


00 I

:ii

i

-iii: iiiii

!! ? - : :

i:

F ig.1 Siberian shaman (18th century)


ow

0 o20 00 000000o

0000

I4F ::v , : a INg

IN

Fig. 2. The 3-Level Universe: Heaven: 9 Gods & Thunder-dragons Earth: 9 mounted shamans

Underworld: 2x9 snake-spirits

2s

IL 4 1 0

~Y ~ Ir~*41

Fig. 3. The Cosmic Tree, that grows to Heaven; with souls

growing in branches, and shamads drum in its trunk -39-


0 O !

PC::: i::- ::: '0 1i~ ~i- :-:.:-_i_: ii :i ::: I::-i- : S a oili-: ;-:--i-iiii i-:-?- :--:::- ?' ?: WO"a~ri:~li.i:~ ----; ::- I . MIX":::-i::::-:: ::: W Ru t:::::::;::ii:'i~iip-i-::::::--i -

A Mi):-~:~::;::._i ::: :: ::_-: _,:--i-_:-::

.. ..... ..iii ~ i-- : :- i ii::-iii--:i?: -i::li-l'- l ~;i:: ::i:: i~ :: l-i:l 0- n:M, IMMIM

" kk:u

VW::::: '0Xb:::Z z o o ,a;iiiii~-i i:-:iii-ii

41- Ile.x~z:: T ubii':::'--ii-:--'iri ~

........ ........

:::::j::r:n

~:j:OX: P::-mm

Lem..i- ~ ~i~~:;~~i~:~~~ to::i::-

AN-_::i-=::?' ::P: !~i~i~~: :-::: -::- -:~- 9~~~~3B~~~~_:::~ia',

F 1g q light on a Horned Eag le n with San~ & amaru


A

Tibetan drum divided into cosmic zones for divination with barley grains (see Section III)

B

Mongol drum divided into

upper & lower worlds, w/stars, trees, 'knimald'

0

o

0d a 0

a a * o

O o

o

O~O

C

Mongol drum divided into cosmic zones, with stars and planets Fig. 5, Drum decoration

-41-


N3

A104

::::~ ~ :' :c*;'I

ilk , :::~:-:,::: r:j?:::: - i.;: ::::i:o mf o 'k" i:;

eil~Z~il;;?-~:?:: ~ j; :::-JR

Fig. 8. A 'Cham dance


"A" Pd., - i-i ;:: _

:-ii~i: IA :ii~:::~:i ~Liliiii ::-::: i- ::: :. -i~ im

":'' ::K-iii- xM .-:~' :i~- : -:i?iiii~ii

"Ova--:-:: : ??~1:i:iii-::- ::iii; W- :::: WV: :-::i::ii::::~~~'':i_:i~~iii:il:.:,: W. Imii~ ?:?:iii~?:::::-:-?-:iiiZ`AN-~ Oleiiil ii:i~~ir~ii~

... .... . 4 1 iii~- -~~:: l'i'i: :;iii: i i . i : IVA , ioi:c-iil:::-- :?:: :1:::;:4::

... .......:i . i : i: - - - - -- - -- ----------------- -il- -:::?

Fig.e Dragon-wheaded lute

-43-


1 4*.

Ii TIW43 ops it IL" AK.

''41 19P ~ i

~i xf

A J :v,_

MI

Vbii

Fig. it. bon percussion notation


Article Contentsp. 3p. [4]p. 5p. 6p. 7p. 8p. 9p. 10p. 11p. 12p. 13p. 14p. 15p. 16p. 17p. 18p. 19p. 20p. 21p. 22p. 23p. 24p. 25p. 26p. 27p. 28p. 29p. 30p. 31p. 32p. 33p. 34p. 35p. 36p. 37p. 38p. 39p. 40p. 41p. 42p. 43p. 44

Issue Table of ContentsAsian Music, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1974), pp. 1-72Front Matter [pp. 1-1]From the Editor [p. 2]Musical Flight in Tibet [pp. 3-44]Esthetics of Improvisation in Turkish Art Music [pp. 45-49]Book ReviewReview: untitled [p. 50]Review: untitled [pp. 51-60]

Record ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 61-63]Review: untitled [pp. 64-65]Review: untitled [pp. 66-71]

Back Matter [pp. 72-72]

musical flight in tibet

Documents

jstor terms

terms conditions of

classical shamanism

jstor archive

description of shamanism

religions of groups

asian music

analogous religions