Paper short abstract:

The Dege county in Kham Tibet is an important borderland between Han and Tibetan cultures and politics in China, and also a pilgrimage centre. My study investigates how local people live with multi-layer uncertainties with resilience, through a sociopolitical investigation of epic performances.

Paper long abstract:

The Derge county in Kham Tibet has since the 15th century been a borderland and pilgrimage centre between imperial China and ancient Tibetan kingdoms. Since the 20th century it remains an important borderland and pilgrimage centre between Han regions and the Tibetan Autonomous Region. With a study of epic performances, I look into the inner tension of value systems that belong to different authorities and to the individuals who perform the everyday religious practices.

Performance of Tibetan Epic Gesar is a UNESCO cultural heritage which features a pervasive system of practices involving the dissemination of religious and cultural knowledge. Besides the chanting of this mythic tale, prayers to King Gesar both as a part of performances and as everyday religious practices are inseparable from this epic tradition. Being enlisted by the UNESCO has profoundly changed the way this epic tradition is received and transmitted by local people and authorities. And the game between local religious authority’s enshrining King Gesar and national institute’s objectifying epic performances as cultural capital also started. The debates derive from its dual function of being both an index of national cultural diversity and a local religious sign. My fieldwork will present everyday religious practices and epic performances in the Dege county, which is supplemented by archival studies of local histories. The practices and preservation of Epic Gesar in Dege reflect complex economic and political structures embedded in this borderland. And my study shows how people live under multi-layer uncertainties in this political landscape with resilience.