Hwa shang at the Border: Transformations of History and Reconstructions of Identity in Modern A mdo

Transcription

1 Hwa shang at the Border: Transformations of History and Reconstructions of Identity in Modern A mdo Mona Schrempf Humboldt University Abstract: This article looks at local ritual and other transformations in the shifting meanings of the well-known Sino-Tibetan historical figure known as Hwa shang in the context of the multi-ethnic borderland of present-day A mdo. Hwa shang is usually represented in Tibetan masked dances and in Tibetan art as the representative par excellence of Chinese Buddhism. The different (hi)stories of Hwa shang and their multiple meanings in various contexts and for specific groups of people referred to in this article will show how decisive local and historical contextualization is for an understanding of seemingly uniform symbols, and for one that is more closely grounded in the specific realities and interpretations of ever changing socio-political worlds. Introduction Instead of thinking about traditions as mere survivals from or revivals of the past even though they might be locally understood as such it makes more sense to analyze them through their present contexts as localized and multi-vocal reproductions and inscriptions of historical imagination. 1 Just which part of the 1 Acknowledgements: I undertook fieldwork with the Shar ba community in A mdo Shar khog (1996) and Dolanji in India (1995) with financial support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Free University of Berlin (NaFöG). I am grateful to all my Tibetan informants in India and in China, especially to Sman ri khri dzin, Samten Gyaltsen Karmay and A khu bstan phel; also to my danwei at the Southwest Nationalities Institute (Xinan Minzu Xueyuan) in Chengdu, and to my research assistant Padmatso. I would like to stress that my interpretation of events and opinions does not necessarily reflect my informants. Special thanks also to Toni Huber who accompanied me in the field and who, like Amy Heller and Françoise Pommaret, provided me with additional references. Thanks also to Janet Upton, Elliot Sperling, and Duncan Campbell for invaluable help in reading Chinese sources and correcting pinyin terms. This paper was originally presented at the conference Myth, Territoriality and Ritual in Tibetan Areas, Vienna, December 1999, hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 2 (August 2006): /2006/2/ by Mona Schrempf, Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, and International Association of Tibetan Studies. Distributed under the THDL Digital Text License.

2 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 2 past is made present by whom and in what particular way can also inform us about contemporary incentives and motivations for doing so. 2 Collective memory is especially illuminating in the case of violently suppressed indigenousness being expressed as cultural revival in the context of colonialism and modernity. Following this point of view, I will look at a local ritual transformation and the shifting meanings of the well-known Sino-Tibetan historical figure known as Hwa shang in the context of present-day A mdo. The different (hi)stories of Hwa shang, their multiple meanings in various contexts and for specific groups of people, show how decisive local and historical contextualization is for an understanding of seemingly uniform symbols, and for one that is more closely grounded in the specific realities and interpretations of ever changing socio-political worlds. Within the context of Chinese nation-building or civilizing projects, much has been written on Tibetan areas interpreting history in such a way as to prove and legitimize the long-standing political connections between China and Tibet. In contrast, locally and orally inscribed Tibetan histories do tell a different story and are crucially important in the context of Tibetan identities. Tibetological literature of western provenance tends to stress the distinctiveness and separateness of Tibetan and Chinese cultures, sometimes ignoring their actual cultural relations in the past. However, the case of the former Sino-Tibetan borderlands of eastern A mdo, where both a historical consciousness of past border relations with the Chinese and of a marked Tibetan-ness prevail today, reveals just how complex and shifting these interactions and encounters between Chinese and Tibetans were and still are. In borderlands in general, one can find not only a specific territorial and ethnic self-assertion on both sides but also imaginative and often mutual assimilations of cultural traits of the other. 3 Despite the fact that eastern A mdo is a multi-ethnic border zone comprising more than just Tibetans and Han Chinese, geo-political history has determined that these two groups became the dominant political players of the area. A mdo much of present-day Qinghai, Gansu, and 2 See R. Rosaldo, Ilongot Headhunting : A Study in Society and History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980); John Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992); and S. Blackburn, Colonial Contact in the Hidden Land : Oral History among the Apatanis of Arunachal Pradesh, The Indian Economic and Social History Review 40, no. 3 (2003): Other (often contested) examples of Sino-Tibetan cross-cultural production in A mdo are found in J. Hutson, Chinese Life on the Tibetan Foothills, The New China Review 2, no. 4 (1920): ; K. Buffetrille, Qui est Khri kha i yul lha? Dieu tibétain du terroir, dieu chinois de la littérature ou de la guerre? Un problème d identité divine en A mdo, in Territory and Identity in Tibet and the Himalayas, ed. K. Buffetrille and H. Diemberger (Leiden: Brill, 2002), ; and M. Schrempf, Victory Banners, Social Prestige and Religious Identity Ritualized Sponsorship and the Revival of Bon Monasticism in A-mdo Shar-khog, in New Horizons in Bon Studies, Bon Studies 2, ed. S. G. Karmay and Y. Nagano (Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 2000), For literature on Chinese borderlands see Owen Lattimore, Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers, (London: Oxford University Press, 1962). On Sino-Tibetan borderlands see R. B. Ekvall, Cultural Relations on the Kansu-Tibetan Border (1939; repr., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977); M. Aris, The Tibetan Borderlands, in Lamas, Princes, and Brigands: Joseph Rock s Photographs of the Tibetan Borderlands of China, ed. M. Aris (New York City: China Institute in America, 1992), 13-19; and M. Stevenson, Cultural Relations on the Kansu-Tibetan Border Revisited, unpublished paper presented at the Future of Tibet colloquium, Canberra, Australia, Sept

3 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 3 northwest Sichuan was, until the end of the 1950s, the buffer and military battle zone throughout the succession of multiple Tibetan and Chinese political systems. In accordance with Leach s theory of dynamic border zones in which cultures interpenetrate, the late Michael Aris wrote: It seems best, then, to conceive of the frontier as a zone rather than a line, one in which all possible boundaries of geography, race, and culture cross and overlap to form a broad north-south transitional area of great complexity separating the Tibetan and Chinese states of the past. 4 In this article, I argue for understanding the Sino-Tibetan border not just in a geographical, multi-ethnic, and historical sense but also in a relational sense of boundaries of identity re-construction between neighboring Tibetans and Chinese who consciously or subconsciously are negotiating past and present through ethnic, sociopolitical, generational, professional, and personal relations. 5 Performed local histories have the ability to connect people with their history and place as well as their past with the present. They have the potential to influence present identities in creative and powerful ways, emphasizing a local discourse vis-à-vis that of the state. The power of performance can reiterate both a sense of belonging and of difference among actors and audience. In the present study, a well-known historical embodiment of Chinese influence on Tibetan culture, the Chinese monk Hwa shang, iconically plays a crucial role in the local imagination of a former Sino-Tibetan border conflict. As a larger-than-life figure, Hwa shang came to embody a local historical narrative of one specific Bon monastery in A mdo Shar khog annually reappearing in its monastic ritual dance performances ( cham). While one could assume that Hwa shang might aptly represent the Chinese monk (and thereby Chinese influence on Tibetan culture), monks from this particular monastery instead honor with this dance one of their formerly influential bla mas in connection with his imperial awards in the wake of an important local Sino-Tibetan peace treaty mediated by him. This interpretation, however, is contested by multi-vocal opinions among the local Shar ba themselves. These voices will be placed into the framework of historical Sino-Tibetan border relations of Shar khog and will be related to other ritual dances and art-historical representations of Hwa shang and his multiple narratives. 4 Aris, Tibetan Borderlands, I am following Carol Pegg s theoretical approach to performed ethnicity, history, and place (see C. Pegg, Mongolian Music, Dance, and Oral Narrative [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001]).

4 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 4 Fig. 1. Rin spungs Monastery. Based on fieldwork data and local Tibetan and Chinese sources gathered in 1995 and 1996, and also during a recent visit in 2002, I will investigate the origin and history of the ritual dance of Hwa shang as it is performed by the monks of the Bon monastery of Rin spungs bkra shis smin grol gling (fig. 1) in A mdo Shar khog. 6 Hwa shang is featured as an oversized figure in many Tibetan ritual masked dances, where he is said to commemorate the Chinese monk (hwa shang, Chi. heshang) known as Hwa shang ma hā yā na, who is featured in narratives which claim to represent and commemorate the famous eighth-century debate about the nature of Buddhism in Tibet staged at Bsam yas Monastery. The Bsam yas debate is depicted in Tibetan historiography as a turning point for the development of Tibetan Buddhism; hence its permanent embodiment in the figure of Hwa shang in many Tibetan Buddhist ritual dances. 7 However, Hwa shang can play ambiguous roles in different dance performances, being sometimes ridiculed and sometimes 6 According to the local source Mdo smad shar phyogs su thog ma i g.yung drung bon gyi lo rgyus mdor bsdus, compiled by A blon [gling] bstan phel and Dri med od zer (n.p., 1995), Rin spungs Monastery was founded by G.yung drung bstan pa i rgyal mtshan from the lineage of Skyang phags in the year 1768 (Shar phyogs bon gyi lo rgyus, 93; cf. T. Huber, Contributions on the Bon Religion in A-mdo (1): The Monastic Tradition of Bya-dur dga -mal in Shar-khog, Acta Orientalia 59 [1998]: 183). However, the monastic history of Rin spungs gives 1768 as the birthdate of its founder with the rather vague information that it was founded in his later lifetime, i.e., in the beginning of the nineteenth century (Zing chu rdzong dgon pa so sogs dkar chag, compiled by A gling bstan phel, et al. [Zung chu rdzong, 1993], 108; cf. Tsering Thar, Bonpo Monasteries and Temples in Tibetan Regions in Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan, in A Survey of Bonpo Monasteries and Temples in Tibet and the Himalaya, Bon Studies 7, ed. S. G. Karmay and Y. Nagano [Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 2003], 608). A former monk from this monastery stated that it was originally called Rgya sgar thog, apparently because of Chinese people living in tents nearby who used to collect medicinal herbs. It was rebuilt after 1983, and is since known under the Chinese name Linbosi, located in Yuanba Xiang; see Aba zhouzhi (Chengdu: Minzu Chubanshe, 1994), 3:2569. Today it has about one hundred monks and fosters a serious study group (sgrub grwa) for students. For more information on Rin spungs see Thar, Bonpo Monasteries, See D. Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism II (Boston: Shambhala, 1987), , which discusses various historical sources on this matter. See also H. Richardson, High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture (London: Serindia Publications, 1998), 203 ff.

5 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 5 venerated. His appearance in a Bon ritual dance seems to be even more obscure as an iconic representation of an early victory of a religion that impinged on the Bon po s own tradition in various negative ways during the following millennium. Indeed, the Hwa shang figure is conspicuously absent in virtually all Bon ritual dance performances. But this is not so in the Bon monastery of Rin spungs. Borders, Territory and Trade The rebuilt Bon po monastery of Rin spungs is located in Shar khog (alias Zung chu kha), a valley area of the upper Zung chu River (or Zing chu in Bon sources, also called Rgya chu, Chi. Minjiang). 8 Shar khog also encompasses neighboring side valleys to the west and east, and is mainly located between the two holy Bon mountains of Byang bya dur to the north and Shar dung ri to the east. 9 About ninety-five percent of the Shar ba are Bon po who, since the religious and cultural revival of the 1980s, have been able to rebuild thirteen Bon monasteries in the area. 10 Shar khog is situated to the north of the former Qing garrison and trading town of Songpan (Zung chu rdzong), in present-day Songpan County (Chi. Songpan Xian), in the Ngawa Prefecture (Chi. Aba zhou) of northwest Sichuan Province. The area is an ancient geo-political and ethnic frontier zone between the former Tibetan and the Chinese empires. Under the name of Zong chu it was mentioned already in the Dunhuang documents, 11 and according to the White Annals (Deb ther dkar po) by Dge dun chos phel it was a designated Tibetan military outpost established in the seventh century. 12 Most Shar ba today believe that they were originally migrants from central or western Tibetan regions. On one hand, their monasteries and monks still have ties with larger Bon monastic institutions in A mdo and Central Tibet, and as traders they retain close connections with other 8 See map. 9 Both mountains were important pilgrimage places (gnas ri) before Whereas the Byang bya dur pilgrimage was revived after 1980 (T. Huber, Ritual Revival and Innovation at Bird Cemetery Mountain, in Amdo Tibetans in Transition: Society and Culture in the Post-Mao Era, ed. T. Huber [Leiden: Brill, 2002]), at Shar dung ri it was not (see Huber, The Skor lam and the Long March: Notes on the Transformation of Tibetan Ritual Territory in Southern A mdo in the Context of Chinese Developments, JIATS, no. 2 [August 2006]: 10 See Zing chu dkar chag, , and a list with respective Chinese names in Aba zhouzhi, 3:2569. For a compilation of the rebuilt Bon monasteries, see Huber, Contributions, In order to match Tibetan with Chinese place names see Sichuan sheng Aba zangzu zizhizhou Songpan xian diminglu (n.p.: Songpan xian diming lingdao xiaozu, 1983). For population data on the Tibetans of Songpan County, see Sichuan sheng Songpan xian 1990 nian renkou pucha ziliao, ed. Songpan xian renkou pucha bangongshi (Yilong County, Sichuan: Zhuang Huang Printing Press, 1992), 26-27, Ethnographic accounts are found in S. G. Karmay, Mountain Cults and National Identity in Tibet, in Resistance and Reform in Tibet, ed. R. Barnett and S. Akiner (London: Hurst and Company, 1994), ; S. G. Karmay and P. Sagant, Les Neufs Forces de l Homme: Récit des confins du Tibet (Nanterre: Société de l Ethnologie, 1998); Schrempf, Ritualized Sponsorship ; M. Schrempf, Ethnisch-religiöse Revitalisierung und rituelle Praxis einer osttibetischen Glaubensgemeinschaft im heutigen China (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Institut für Ethnologie, Freie Universität, Berlin, 2001); Huber, Ritual Revival ; and Huber, The Skor lam and the Long March. 11 J. Bacot, F. W. Thomas, and C. Toussaint, Documents de Touen-Houang relatifs a l Histoire du Tibet (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1940), 18, Cited after Karmay, Mountain Cults, 116.

6 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 6 Tibetan communities further north and west. 13 On the other hand, they seem to have been marginalized and placed historically into the category of barbarous border dwellers (mtha khob) by both Tibetan and Chinese historical accounts, possibly because of the Shar ba s direct contact with the Chinese. 14 As A mdo ba living on the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau bordering China (rgya bod mtshams) and also as Bon po they retain a distinct local and religious identity. 15 Situated on the southeastern fringe of the A mdo Tibetan plateau, Shar khog is an ethnic borderland in which Tibetans, Han Chinese, Hui, and Qiang populations live next to each other. Han and Hui are settled either in the Songpan County town to the south of Shar khog or in settlements which are now situated along the main road leading north to the famous tourist attractions of Huanglong (Gser mtsho) and Jiuzhaigou (Gzi rtsa sde dgu) National Parks. Shar khog has increasingly developed into a summer bus-tour resort for the Chinese tourism market. A new airport and upgraded road connect it directly with the major Chinese city of Chengdu and other tourist attractions of northwest Sichuan. 16 Because of tourism, petrol stations, hotels, restaurants, and shops have mushroomed in and around Songpan town and especially in the boom-town of Chuanzhusi, situated at the crossroads between the grassland of Hongyuan to the west and the Huanglong National Park at the foot of Shar dung ri. Rin spungs Monastery lies en route to Huanglong, rather inconspicuous and a little off the main road. It remains one of the few monasteries in Shar khog which have refrained from direct engagement with the tourist industry today, and it houses a thriving permanent community of monks. Despite the obvious socio-economic changes, and a marked increase in Chinese entrepreneurs and settlers in the valley, the author estimates that most of the Shar ba still live in their traditional agricultural villages distant from the main road. 13 Quite a number of Shar ba do have shops in Chengdu or do trading in Lhasa or are mobile traders involved in transport businesses with other Tibetan areas. 14 The well-known motto of former Chinese politics using barbarians to rule barbarians (yi yi zhi yi) speaks for itself. In Tibetan historical accounts on the spread of Bon religion, similar derogatory remarks were apparently applied to a kind of uncivilized time and space before Bon was introduced into a Tibetan area, such as is reiterated in the local monastic history of Rin spungs: mtha khob zhing du bon bstan sgron me spor zhig (Zing chu dkar chag, 108). Cf. Per Kværne, The Monastery of Snang-zhig of the Bon Religion in the Rnga-ba District of Amdo, in Indo-Sino-Tibetica: Studi in onore di Luciano Petech, ed. P. Daffina (Rome: Bardi, 1990), 213, translated from the monastic history of Rnga ba snang zhig Monastery: In short, in the border areas which are like a dog s excrement the lotus of the doctrine of Eternal Bon grew forth; this began with the great Do- phags. Before that, rnga-khog was full of Chinese and Mongols, and even the rumor of Bon or chos was unknown. 15 Whereas inside Shar khog Bon po constitute the majority, they expressed very clearly their awareness of being a minority vis-à-vis the majority of Tibetan Buddhists surrounding them. As traders, they know for example what most of their clients ask for among other things, Buddhist (and not Bon) religious texts. In the past there have been some tensions between Bon and Buddhist religious representatives, the latest ones occurring during the local uprising against the communists in 1957/8. However, in general, intersectarian relations in Shar khog seem to have been mostly peaceful. 16 Mainland and overseas Chinese flock in and out of Shar khog on combined tours around Sichuan, visiting Buddhist pilgrimage places such as Leshan and Emeishan, some of the Bon monasteries in Shar khog and the natural beauty of Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou.

7 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 7 The Shar ba community have responded to life in this active geo-political frontier zone by acting as go-betweens, mainly as traders and mediators (and sometimes as raiders), linking two distinct ethnic territories. They have formed a link between the Chinese trading and garrison town of Songpan, which for centuries had to be protected by thick walls against aggressive intruders (especially against the local Tibetans), and the A mdo Tibetan pastoralist communities of the high plateau to the northwest. The Shar ba traded with Chinese merchants from Songpan and certain Tibetan nomad groups, mainly exchanging Chinese tea for horses, wool, and other animal products from the Tibetan highlands. 17 Prior to the modern period, the Shar ba village federations (tsho) were headed by a locally elected Tibetan popular leader or big man (dbang can, the one with power ) and/or a hereditary headman ( go ba, Chi. tuguan) appointed by the Qing imperium and then also by the Republicans during the early decades of the twentieth century. Despite the fact that Shar khog did not constitute a unified political entity, the Shar ba were politically autonomous in all of their affairs. Also, according to their own oral history, they did not pay taxes to the Qing administration in Songpan, the governor of Sichuan, or the Lhasa government of Central Tibet. Each village federation there were about eight of them had its own territorial cult based upon a local mountain deity (yul lha or gzhi bdag) and also a monastery. Together, the lay and monk communities formed a coherent socio-political and ritual whole (lha sde), to the extent that disputes and even feuds between them were no rare incidents before the 1950s. The Bon monasteries in Shar khog were completely different types of institutions from those well-known examples in Central Tibet and elsewhere, in that they neither owned land nor collected taxes. They depended mainly upon the lay donations which the rather affluent local population of big traders and some farmers were willing to give. Any monastic capital surplus was often reinvested by way of money lending to local traders. Some lay as well as monastic authorities also played important roles as mediators in local conflicts among the Tibetan federations and, in the case to be discussed herein, they also mediated between the Tibetans from Shar khog and the Chinese from Songpan. 18 The Sino-Tibetan Conflict of One mediator and political diplomat from the Bon po monasteries in Shar khog was the reincarnate lama (sprul sku) of Rin spungs Monastery, Sprul sku shes rab ye shes, who lived during the nineteenth century (b. 1811). 19 Even today, he is 17 On the former tea trade in Songpan, see Aba zangzu zizhizhou wenshi ziliao xuanji (Zhengxie Sichuan sheng Aba zangzu zizhizhou weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao weiyuanhui bianyin, 1986), 4:10-23, and Baimacuo, Shitan Zangdong cha ma shangdao, Xizang yanjiu 3 (1994): 35-39; also W. van Spengen, The Geo-History of Long-Distance Trade in Tibet , The Tibet Journal 20, no. 2 (1995): See the interesting biographical history on the former Shar ba society by Karmay and Sagant, Les Neufs Forces de l Homme. 19 See Thar, Bonpo Monasteries, 608, for a summary of biographical data. In 1885, Shes rab ye shes founded an intersectarian association of Bon and Buddhist monasteries called The Thirteen

8 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 8 revered and remembered by the monks of Rin spungs as the second abbot of their monastery, a bla ma with wide-ranging knowledge and an important local representative of Tibetan interests vis-à-vis the Chinese imperial power. In the written history of Rin spungs 20 he is highly praised, and there is even an inscribed stone stele in memory of his life and achievements. Fragments of this stone inscription still survive, in spite of attempts to destroy it during the Cultural Revolution. The stele was re-erected in front of the rebuilt assembly hall in 1985 and is carved with both Chinese and Tibetan inscriptions intended to commemorate an important local Sino-Tibetan peace treaty which the Rin spungs sprul sku shes rab ye shes mediated (Figs. 2 and 3). This peace was negotiated with representatives of the Qing imperium following devastating Tibetan raids upon Songpan town and Chinese military reprisals during the mid-nineteenth century. 21 Fig. 2. The Chinese inscription on the Rin spungs stele. Affiliated Monasteries of Zingchu (Zing chu dgon lag bcu gsum) together with some other eminent bla mas; see Zing chu dkar chag, , and Schrempf, Ethnisch-religiöse Revitalisierung. However, this association was not prominent and did not last long. Yet the structure of the compiled monastic histories of this area, the Zingchu Compilation (Zing chu dkar chag), closely resembles the former intersectarian association. 20 It is published as part of the compilation of local monastic histories; see Zing chu dkar chag, , especially This publication forms part of the religious and ethnic revival in this area which began in 1980 and is an available, common source for local Tibetans concerning their monastic histories. 21 A monk from Rin spungs claimed to be able to read some of the words (which I was unable to do), stating that the inscription does mention that Rin spungs sprul sku shes rab ye shes received the title Sichuan abbot (mkhan po) from the Chinese emperor. This is also verified in both Tibetan and Chinese sources, as we will see.

9 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 9 Fig. 3. The Tibetan inscription on the Rin spungs stele. In attempting to reconstruct this historically important local event, I have resorted to a written Tibetan history of Rin spungs Monastery published in 1993, the Zingchu Compilation (Zing chu dkar chag), as well as a Chinese gazetteer for Songpan County, the Gazetteer of Songpan County (Songpan xianzhi), dating from This latter source mentions an important mediator in the Sino-Tibetan conflict in mid-nineteenth-century Songpan as the Lama of Linbosi, i.e., the Rin spungs sprul sku. A second mediating personality also plays a major role in this event, the regional Qing military commander (zongbing), 22 Lianchang. His story is described under the heading The Tibetan Rebellion in the Gengshen Year [1860] of the Qing Dynasty. 23 In the Tibetan history of Rin spungs Monastery, however, a different date is given for this Sino-Tibetan conflict, 1850, with the addition that it lasted for about seven years. 24 A local Tibetan historian, Dmu dge bsam gtan ( ), places the conflict in the year 1851, 25 while an outside witness, the traveller Captain Gill, who had visited the area in 1877, confirms a similar date. However, Gill mentions at least three major conflicts between Tibetans and Chinese occurring at about this time. 26 So it is possible that the Tibetan accounts match the starting date of a protracted series of disputes which culminated in more full-scale 22 According to C. O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 533, this position (kuan) is a rank 2a, and is subordinate to a provincial military commander and a provincial governor. 23 Songpan xianzhi, ed. C. Fu and H. Hsu (1924; repr., Taipei: Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju, 1967), 2: Zing chu dkar chag, Dmu dge bsam gtan, Bod kyi lo rgyus kun dga i me long, In Rnga ba bod rigs cha ang rigs rang skyong khul gyi rig gnas lo rgyus dpyad yig bdams bsgrigs, Bod yig book 2, part 5: Rnga ba mdo smad kyi lo rgyus las zung chu i phyogs kyi lo rgyus (Rnga ba bod rigs cha ang rigs rang skyong khul rig gnas lo rgyus dpyad yig zhib jug u yon khang, 1987), W. Gill, The River of Golden Sand: Being the Narrative of a Journey through China and Tibet to Burmah (London: John Murray, 1883),

10 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 10 armed conflict between 1859 and 1862, the broader dates given in the Gazetteer of Songpan County. 27 During the nineteenth century, the Qing administration at Songpan had attempted to implement a more closely regulated trade system with the surrounding Shar ba farming communities, one which was supervised by appointed Tibetan hereditary chiefs (Chi. tuguan). 28 Their role was to assure the delivery of a fixed amount of grain to the Chinese garrison in Songpan, the grain being provided by certain Tibetan villagers in autumn immediately following the harvest. These grain supplies were to be paid for in advance by the state at a fixed price each spring. A hereditary chief was also in charge of distributing the money paid by the state to the respective Tibetan farming families according to a list containing their names. 29 Around 1857, the Tibetans began to complain about corrupt Chinese officials in Songpan town, who had started to raise the annual grain quota while still paying the former fixed price. The officials supposedly directed the surplus into their own pockets. 30 The new amount of grain demanded must have been considerably higher than before, for it is said to have resulted in hardship for the Tibetans. The Tibetan written and oral sources, however, never mention trade or tax obligations towards Songpan. In the year 1859, most of the Chinese troops from the Songpan garrison were withdrawn in order to be dispatched to other frontier regions where conflict with local Tibetan populations had broken out. Thus, Chinese military presence in Songpan was weakened. The Tibetans decided not to supply their grain quota that year, and started to organize a rebellion against the Chinese authorities instead. At that time, a charismatic Tibetan reincarnate lama (sprul sku, Chi. huofo), from a place called Xiaoxingguo in the lower part of a side valley to the southwest of Shar 27 Or there might have been two major conflicts, since Songpan was conquered at least three times in the nineteenth century by the Tibetans. For example, according to W. C. Watson, Journey to Sungp an, Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 36 (1905): 76, Sungp an has been the scene of constant fighting between the Chinese and Hsifans [Tibetans], and a few years ago the latter actually succeeded in capturing the town itself and held it for a short time. 28 Songpan xianzhi, 2:490. The Tibetan communities in this scheme are never mentioned clearly in Chinese sources. Albert Tafel, who travelled in the Songpan area in 1905, mentions the existence of corvée labor among the Shar ba living fairly close to Songpan in the side valley of Mao niu gu (Chi. Mounigou, Tib. Khrom rje or Khrims rgyal khog; A. Tafel, Meine Tibetreise. Eine Studienfahrt durch das nordwestliche China und durch die innere Mongolei in das östliche Tibet [Stuttgart: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1914], 2:266). Tafel describes several incidents of conflict between Chinese soldiers from Songpan ( sung pan ting ) and Tibetans ( Fan tse ) who refused to provide corvée labor for them. He cites one of the latter whose self-assertion speaks for itself: The water from our river you may not drink, the wood from our forests you may not take, our grass should not be eaten by your animals, and the very last thing we would do is provide u lag [corvée labor] for you. However, the Tibetans had to give in and received a small payment for their service (Tafel, Meine Tibetreise, 2:267). Again, there is no mention of corvée labor in the local Tibetan written and oral sources. 29 For each 100 kg of grain (dou) were given 1 wen 2 fen cash of silver coins in advance; see Songpan xianzhi, 2: The salaries for the administrators as well as for the military troops seemed to have come from state-controlled tea taxes (Chi. chapiao). These had to be paid for the transport of tea up to Songpan from the lowlands of Sichuan and even from Yunnan. Tea tax was paid on a per package basis by Chinese merchants, many of whom seem to have been Hui.

11 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 11 khog instigated a rebellion. 31 The walled town of Songpan came under heavy Tibetan attack, during which many Chinese lives were lost. 32 This coincides with the information given in the Tibetan source naming Chu smad (Chi. Xiaoxingguo), as well as Chu nag (Chi. Xiaoheishui), as starting points for the conflict which then spread to upper Shar khog. The Tibetans more or less destroyed the walled town of Songpan, reducing the houses inside to ashes. 33 A new Chinese garrison commander, Lianchang (in Tibetan phonetically rendered as Mien ta ran ), was appointed by the Sichuan governor to suppress the rebellion. However, he was forced to flee after Songpan was surrounded by Tibetans. He was given asylum by the Lama of Linbosi, or Linbo Lama, and then was able to escape to the provincial capital of Chengdu. Following this, and according to the Tibetan source, the Qing emperor (Rgya nag gong ma) Shan tung (Chi. Xianfeng, r ), decided to utterly destroy the troublesome Songpan Tibetans. Several divisions of imperial troops were dispatched to the region, and encircled Songpan from both the north and the south simultaneously. However, the Chinese commander, Lianchang, grateful for having been rescued earlier, was able to speak in favor of the Tibetans. A peace treaty was then arranged in secret together with his savior, the Rin spungs sprul sku shes rab ye shes, and other important bla mas from the area. 34 According to the Tibetan sources, Shes rab ye shes was then rewarded with the special imperial title Great Abbot of Rin spungs Songpan Sichuan (su khran song phan rin spungs mkhan chen) as a sign of his new rank (go sa). He was presented with an official document including a golden imperial seal, a garment, a special rounded hat with a peacock ornament on top, a rosary, and a pair of Chinese boots. Furthermore, the Chinese emperor gave permission to Rin spungs Monastery to stage performances of the Hwa shang ritual dance (hwa shang cham). 35 Before enumerating the imperial rewards given to the Rin spungs sprul sku shes rab ye shes, the Gazetteer of Songpan County recalls a rather curious story: following the destruction of Songpan, some Chinese officers wanted to directly take revenge for their lost comrades and insisted on punishing someone; thus, a scapegoat had to be found. Of all people, a barbarian woman, the mother of the charismatic reincarnate lama from Sa brug dgon pa who supposedly had initiated 31 The whole side valley is called Rewugo (Zhang ngu khog) today. The monastery of the said Tibetan reincarnate lama (whose name is not mentioned) is called Xiaoxingguosi in the Songpan xianzhi, which seems to match today the rebuilt Bon monastery of Sa brug dgon pa (known today, however, as Longtousi in Chinese), and located in today s Xiaoxingxian (see map). 32 Songpan xianzhi mentions (without giving a date) that a later magistrate gave a commemorative speech in order to remember the lives lost in this war; see Songpan xianzhi, 2: Zing chu dkar chag, ; and Dmu dge bsam gtan, Kun dga i me long, 293; as well as Gill, River of Golden Sand, While the monastic history of Rin spungs mentions several bla mas as well as laypeople being involved in the negotiations, the Chinese source explicitly states that this happened exclusively between the Chinese general and the Rin spungs sprul sku. 35 Zing chu dkar chag, 112.

12 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 12 the Tibetan rebellion, was pointed out by Shes rab ye shes as the culprit. She seems to have been executed with the consequence that no other Tibetans were punished and the Shar ba Tibetans were spared certain death. If this story is true, then it is quite understandable why it is not mentioned at all in the Tibetan source. The Chinese source recounts the establishment of the Sino-Tibetan peace treaty between Lianchang and the Linbo Lama as follows: 1. The administration of Songpan was to pay 2000 taels of silver as a salary for a newly established tubian, a kind of local Tibetan police under the control of the hereditary chiefs, to guarantee peace in the area. This was partly financed by tea trade taxes (Chi. chapiao) through the Songpan administration. 2. The Linbo Lama should be granted the title Sichuan Abbot, second rank (Chi. Sichuan kanbu) 36 as well as a yearly income in the form of a small percentage of the tea tax (2 wen per each 60 kg tea packet). He would also be permitted to use the former governmental seat inside Songpan town in order to establish a new temple with the name Linbosi. After the treaty had been signed, fifty years of peace is said to have prevailed between the Tibetans and Chinese. 37 The Hwa shang Ritual Dance A slightly different version of events was given by a former Rin spungs monk who after many years is now a highly-ranked bla ma from the Central Tibetan Bon monastery of G.yung drung gling. He recalls that Rin spungs a lags 38 Shes rab ye shes had actually been invited to go to Beijing in order to receive his imperial awards, but since he was already quite frail at that time, he could not go. Instead, the emperor sent him the mask of Hwa shang, a chair with golden arm rests, and an imperial seal. 39 In recognition of Shes rab ye shes mediation skills, the performance of the ritual dance of Hwa shang is said to have been established at this monastery by the Qing emperor s permission. We note the fact that Shes rab ye shes played a decisive role as mediator in dealing with this Sino-Tibetan conflict. According to his monastery s written history, it is due to him and his negotiations that the Shar ba were not wiped out by vengeful Chinese troops. Compared with other Bon monasteries in this area, Rin spungs seems to have had a closer connection to the Chinese administration in Songpan town in the past. Even today, a given monastic community s identity and competitiveness with regard to other local Bon monasteries seems to be based 36 Kanbu is probably a Chinese phonetic rendering of the Tibetan mkhan po, abbot. 37 Songpan xianzhi, 2:499. There apparently was no fifty-year peace; see Watson, Journey to Sungp an, 76. None of these details are mentioned in the monastic history, nor confirmed by oral Tibetan sources. 38 A lags is an honorific expression for rin po che in A mdo dialect. 39 al communication, 2003.

13 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 13 on its claims to past glory made present through ritual means. Rin spungs monks still emphasize the former hegemonic position in local Sino-Tibetan politics and imperial recognition that their monastery held about 150 years ago. Some Shar ba, however, take the dance of Hwa shang, unique to this Bon monastery in Shar khog, to represent the Qing emperor directly. This might not be so astounding since the local role of the Chinese emperor could be easily matched with that of Hwa shang in other ritual dances symbolizing a Chinese dignitary. 40 In the 1950s and earlier, according to a Shar ba lay historian, Hwa shang used to bow down three times in front of Rin spungs Monastery and then in front of the audience that is, in front of Bon religion and the local Tibetans in order to show his respect. 41 Not surprisingly, as times and power relationships have changed dramatically over the past fifty years, this is an act that is no longer incorporated in Hwa shang s performance. This interpretation, however, is not the only one, and somewhat contests the metonymical identification of Hwa shang with Shes rab ye shes imperial awards bestowed on him by the Qing emperor. Therefore, I suggest understanding the Hwa shang ritual dance at Rin spungs in terms of ambiguous, historically shifting, local Sino-Tibetan power relations connected with imperial and religious authority rather than through a personification of Hwa shang as either a Chinese monk, a Chinese emperor, or a Tibetan bla ma with his imperial rewards. The Hwa shang ritual dance became a unique symbol for Rin spungs Monastery, very likely at a later date than the Sino-Tibetan peace treaty in the middle of the nineteenth century. Especially when Rin spungs became one of the five member monasteries of the monastic federation of Dga mal dgon khag in Shar khog beginning in the late 1940s, one can speculate that by this ritual union, based on the ritual dances, the single monasteries became more competitive and were courting the sponsors favor. 42 And only a monastery with high prestige based on religious authority plus, so it seems, additional support by imperial recognition in the past, would have been able to attract the considerable amounts of money necessary to stage an impressive ritual dance festival. These occasions were important events for collecting donations that provide most of the annual monastic economy and also for demonstrating and reiterating power and social prestige, especially among the laity but sometimes even among affluent monks and bla mas. Parfois, au monastère de Rinpoung ou à celui de Skyang tshang, les jours de grand rituel, la foule était énorme, avec des cavaliers venus de tout le pays. Quand un homme arrivait ainsi vêtu de peaux de cerf et suivi par quelques-uns des siens, 40 The Hwa shang dance is annually performed on the sixteenth day of the fourth Tibetan month as part of the ritual festival of the Dbyar gnas dus chen (Dbyar dang gnas brnyan phyag mchod rol) in the monastic courtyard of Rin spungs. 41 In another eastern Tibetan ritual dance performed at the Dge lugs pa monastery of Co ne, Hwa shang was ridiculed by two nomad figures and made to kowtow as well; see J. F. Rock, Life among the Lamas of Choni, The National Geographic Magazine 54 (1928): 601, with a photograph of the Hwa shang dance figure on p Elsewhere I have dealt with the history of the monastic federation of Dga mal dgon khag and the important role of sponsorship of the ritual dances based on interviews with former sponsors and participants (Schrempf, Ritualized Sponsorship ).

14 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 14 tout le monde le dévisageait en silence et, sur le terre-plein, la foule s écartait pour le laisser passer. Le plus souvent, il était connu et derrière lui, on murmurait son nom et le nom de sa communauté. 43 In fact, in today s performances, compared to other figures of the Rin spungs ritual dance, Hwa shang truly remains a border figure. Even though he cannot be missed, since he has the biggest of all ritual dance masks, his slow majestic movements are somewhat unspectacular. He often pauses at the side of the dance ground rather than in the middle. However, he is clearly set apart from other dancers by the size of his mask as well as by the particular music style devoted to him, which is locally labeled as being of Chinese provenance. The audience and especially the lay sponsors (sbyin bdag, locally called khri pa) of the Rin spungs ritual dance in 1996 did not react to this secular dance in any particular way. Instead, their interest focused on the high-ranking deities embodied by other ritual dancers, with a clear favorite among them, the lion dance (seng ge i cham). 44 Lay sponsors guided by a monk venerate these deities with offering scarves (kha btags) and blessed grain during the dance performance. The lion even receives a special welcome with firecrackers. Yet there is no doubt that in the particular local context of Rin spungs monastic and lay community, the mediating role of Shes rab ye shes continues to publicly and annually reinforce the monastery s prestige, identity, and local importance, especially among those who are most familiar with its monastic history. The monastery of Rin spungs thereby stresses its relation to the former, neighboring imperial power and authority, a fact that seems to set it apart from other Bon monasteries in the area. One can safely conclude that the Hwa shang ritual dance does play an important role in the identity construction of the contemporary community of Rin spungs in connection with the important Sino-Tibetan peace treaty, permanently visible today as an inscription on a well-placed stone stele in front of the monastery. However, the meaning of the Hwa shang ritual dance appears to be a contested one among other Shar ba outside of Rin spungs circles. 43 Karmay and Sagant, Les Neufs Forces de l Homme, On the lion dance in Shar khog and A mdo see M. Schrempf, The Earth-ox and the Snowlion, in Amdo Tibetans in Transition: Society and Culture in the Post-Mao Era, ed. T. Huber (Leiden, Brill, 2002),

15 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 15 Fig. 4. Hwa shang and attendants in the Rin spungs ritual dance. Imperial rewards given to certain Tibetan monastic personalities were uncommon. Nevertheless, a famous scholar and lineage (gdung rgyud) bla ma from the old Bya dur dga mal Monastery in Shar khog, the Mkhar yags mkhas pa (alias Bstan dzin ngag dbang rnam rgyal), 45 had also received an imperial honor, though later than the one given to Rin spungs sprul sku, it seems, at around the beginning of the twentieth century. In this case, however, the award was not for political diplomacy between Tibetans and Chinese but entirely for scholarly expertise. As the monastic history of Bya dur dga mal Monastery confirms, the Chinese imperial authorities gave permission to perform a specific Chinese popular tradition known as the earth-ox (sa glang) by issuing a seal. The earth-ox was a type of farmers almanac which became transformed into a ritual performance locally called Chinese earth-ox divination (rgya nag glang rtsis) and was incorporated into the annual monastic dances at Bya dur dga mal during the Tibetan New Year celebrations. 46 Rin spungs monks now claim, however, their monastery s supremacy by stating that, in addition to the Hwa shang ritual dance, permission to stage the earth-ox divination had been awarded to them first. Only later, since it turned out to be a case of bad rten brel (in the sense of a negative karmic connection ) for Rin spungs Monastery, they passed the earth-ox tradition on to Bya dur dga mal, whose characteristic ritual tradition it consequently became. Monks from Bya dur dga mal repudiate this claim completely, and have their own origin stories of their imperial reward to tell instead. This competition makes clear, however, that at least among some monastic communities of Shar khog a monastery s prestige is closely linked to the prestige of their most knowledgeable bla ma in connection with the former imperial recognition by the Chinese authorities. 45 See Huber, Contributions, 203, On this ritual tradition, see Schrempf, Earth-ox and the Snowlion.

16 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 16 Fig. 5. Hashang s children (hwa phrug) in the Rin spungs ritual dance. Thus, among the ritual dance traditions of the major five Bon monasteries in Shar khog, which since 1947 have been affiliated in the monastic association of Dga mal dgon khag, Hwa shang became an exclusive icon of Rin spungs Monastery which was also formerly known for its excellent performance style and variety of ritual dances. 47 Hwa shang has the largest mask in the ritual dance (fig. 4) and moves slowly and gracefully around the dance ground, more like an observer than a participant. He is accompanied on his rounds by two small, masked monk attendants. He also has a troupe of four young boys, called Hashang s children (hwa phrug), dressed in colorful attire (fig. 5). The small boys dance to the rhythm of a specific Chinese-style music, as was explained to me by Rin spungs monks, which is truly unique when compared to the differently structured ritual dance orchestral music. Its particular melody is played by oboe-like ritual instruments (rgya gling), also used in other ritual dance music. However, the rhythm is played on a specific (Chinese?) double drum beaten with two sticks (fig. 6; cf. video footage). Hwa shang s costume is supposed to consist of the imperial gifts silk clothes, special boots, and a rosary which had formerly been presented to the Rin spungs sprul sku Samten Karmay, personal communication, Even today, as I was able to observe and compare with other monastic dance performances in Shar khog, the ones at Rin spungs are slower, longer, and more elaborately performed. Rin spungs repertoire is also more extensive and more monk dancers are participating. 48 For a summary of Hwa shang s different roles and his general iconography in ritual dance performances, see R. de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Tibetan Religious Dances: Tibetan Text and Annotated Translation of the Cham Yig (Delhi: Paljor Publications, 1997), 82, 83.

17 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 17 Fig. 6. Monastic orchestra for the Hwa shang ritual dance. Due to recent economic developments in Shar khog, a new transformation of Hwa shang had taken place. In the early 1990s, Rin spungs monks were asked by local officials to perform a ritual dance outside of its monastic context. The purpose was to provide a publicity photo opportunity, and the new setting was in front of a Chinese temple at the nearby Huanglong National Park, a site that is the focus of mass tourism development in the region. A photograph of this performance was subsequently published in a tourist guidebook depicting the beautiful scenery of Huanglong. This incident seems to have been a unique event. The interesting question here (for which we have no answer) is why, for this particular event, the Hwa shang dance was chosen from all the other possible Tibetan ritual dances performed by the monks at Rin spungs? Did the Rin spungs monks offer it because of what they felt would be most appropriate to perform for Chinese cameras, or did the authorities or photographers choose it because of its historical background? In any case, Hwa shang remains a historical and rather secular yet once powerful political figure related to Chinese authority in this border area and, unlike most ritual dance figures, does not represent the embodiment of a deity. Thus, there is no specific ritual text (cho ga) for the Hwa shang ritual dance, and its performance in a secular setting does not represent a breach of monastic rules. And, in comparison with the other Bon monasteries of the area, Hwa shang exclusively represents something of the corporate identity of Rin spungs Monastery. The promotional photography session may indicate the ongoing representations and situated reinterpretations as part of a discourse about the aptly changeable figure of Hwa shang at the border, and thus of Sino-Tibetan relations in this area. Connected with the site of Huanlong, Hwa shang s published icon has the ironic, potential outcome of helping to create a new history of the Huanglong area and even of reclaiming an otherwise lost Tibetan space in an admittedly awkward way. 49 In the present day, somewhat differing discourses about Hwa shang are contested among the Shar ba. Some Shar ba informants (who as laypeople were not affiliated with Rin spungs Monastery) laughed about the claims when they heard of Rin 49 For the photo, see Huber, The Skor lam and the Long March (fig. 9. The Temple Fair ). In fact, because of this photo, and because of contradictory statements by local informants, Toni Huber and I went to Huanglong in search of an actual Hwa shang performance at the time of the assumed annual fair in 1996, only to discover that we had been taken in by an advertising strategy, i.e., a photo of the Hwa shang ritual dance which had been solely staged for marketing purposes.

18 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 18 spungs monks particular interpretation, calling them ignorant because it is well-known that Hwa shang is the Chinese monk Ma hā yā na featured in the historical Bsam yas debate and that is all. On the other hand, what would an ancient Chinese Buddhist monk who is an important historical figure in Tibetan Buddhism be doing in a Tibetan Bon monastery? The Rin spungs history certainly makes more sense in this respect. Very likely, the Hwa shang ritual dance as performed in Rin spungs is connected with another entirely different issue. Since it is a ritual dance tradition, of course it is reasonable to associate it with the Tibetan tradition of performing the dance of Hwa shang ma hā yā na in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, about which, however, we know very little in historical terms. One of Hwa shang s iconographical markers in ritual dance as well as in Tibetan painting is his rosary, which indicates he is a monk. He usually appears as a shaven-headed, portly, good-natured and smiling Chinese monk, and is accompanied by up to six little children. On the other hand, since the figure of Hwa shang in Rin spungs is iconographically connected to imperial insignia such as an imperial seal, clothes, and so forth in the late nineteenth century, it is worth seeking some Chinese origins for the Bon po Hwa shang at Rin spungs, to which later Tibetan adaptations might have been added. 50 Hwa shang in Art and Architecture: A Comparison In Tibetan paintings since at least the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Hwa shang has been depicted as one of eighteen Buddhist arhats, a group of figures who are defending the teachings of the Buddha. 51 Their appearance in Tibetan art varies according to different painting styles. However, in this regard, Chinese literary influence on Tibetan sources seems to be dominant. 52 In China, Hwa shang s manifestation and character have merged with the laughing, big-bellied Chan figure Budai (c. tenth century), and later, by the end of the fourteenth century, with images of the future Buddha Maitreya as well. In Tibetan paintings the Hwa shang figure is iconographically similar: a rotund and jovial character, big-bellied and almost bald headed, dressed in silken robes yet more like a layperson than a monk often holding a rosary in his hands. He is regarded as a friend of children, who are 50 However, the discourse on what is an originally Tibetan, and what is an originally Chinese, tradition has been subject of numerous oral debates in Shar khog, for example, the dance of the snow lion and the introduction of the earth-ox divination; see Schrempf, Earth-ox and the Snowlion. 51 The number of arhats varies according to different traditions and time periods in literature and art in India, China, and Tibet. Hwa shang seems to have been added as a later Tibetan addition to originally sixteen arhats (P. Pal, Tibetan Paintings: A Study of Tibetan Thankas Eleventh to Nineteenth Centuries [Basel: Basilus Presse, 1984], 111), while in Indian art their tradition seems to have been lost altogether. The Chinese arhat can be traced back to literary sources from the fifth century; they appear in Tang art as a group of sixteen or eighteen monks. From the Song dynasty onwards the arhat became popular artistic representations while growing into an entourage of five hundred. 52 M. M. Rhie and R. A. F. Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), 102, 103; P. Pal, The Arhats and the Māhāsiddhas in Himalayan Art, Arts of Asia 20, no. 1 (1990):

19 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 19 generally depicted together with him. 53 This description comes close to our Hwa shang figure in the ritual dance at Rin spungs Monastery, where a group of young children (hwa phrug) always accompany him. 54 In Tibet, Hwa shang also became associated with the white old man, an embodiment of longevity, and with as already mentioned the alleged Chinese historical figure of Hwa shang who took part in the Bsam yas debate. 55 Interestingly, a Tibetan narrative connection seems to exist between Hwa shang and a Chinese emperor: Tibetans believe he [Hwa-shang] was sent by the Chinese emperor to India to invite the arhats to visit and bless China. 56 Some elements in another legend about Hwa shang remind us more closely of the historical events taking place in Shar khog. Pal mentions the following narrative depicted on a Tibetan painting from eastern Tibet: When Hva Shang lived as a monk in China, he once offended the emperor and fled to escape punishment. Years later he returned in a boat, and all the other arhats emerged from the sea to protect both their colleague and the merits of the emperor. Apparently the subject was popular in China and was often painted in temples. 57 Could these narratives of Hwa shang in connection with the local historical events in the middle of the nineteenth century in Shar khog have served as a matrix to perform and give meaning to the dance of the arhat Hwa shang at Rin spungs Monastery? Shifting Settings and Narratives of the Hwa shang Ritual Dance In the Indian exile Bon monastery of Sman ri, the Hwa shang ritual dance has re-emerged as part of the revival of annual ritual dance performances. This is no coincidence, however, nor a lingering Tibetan Buddhist or even Chinese influence. The Bon po community in India encompasses former Rin spungs monks, and also other exile Shar ba, foremost among them being Sman ri khri dzin, the current thirty-third abbot of Sman ri Monastery. Interestingly, and perhaps also logically, in the Sman ri dances the Hwa shang figure s meaning is not related anymore to Shes rab ye shes nor more generally to Rin spungs monastic history but appears generally as a representative of the Chinese, according to the explanations given 53 M. M. Rhie and R. A. F. Thurman, Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999), , plate 21; compare with Rhie and Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion, 110, 111, plate According to Françoise Pommaret, Hwa shang is depicted on Bhutanese temple walls as one of the eighteen arhats, and is surrounded by children. However, he is not represented in Bhutanese ritual dance (personal communication, 1999). 55 Rhie and Thurman, Worlds of Transformation, Rhie and Thurman, Worlds of Transformation, Pal, Tibetan Paintings, 157, see plate 96.

20 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 20 by Sman ri khri dzin himself. 58 Together with the other well-known ritual dance figures known as the A tsa ra, 59 who with their darker skin and big noses represent the Indians, Hwa shang appears in the annual New Year dances. Both Hwa shang and the A tsa ra venerate Rgyal po shel khrab can, a deified king of Bon religion, in the monastic courtyard. 60 Here Hwa shang seems to generally represent Chinese influence, while the A tsa ra represent Indian influence on Tibetan religion and culture, but with no framing in terms of specific historic events. This general historical and culturally based relation of Tibetans with India and China could also be encountered in some ritual dance traditions performed in Dge lugs pa Buddhist monasteries in the past. For example, at both Sku bum byams pa gling in A mdo and the Rnam rgyal grwa tshang in the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Hwa shang also used to appear in ritual dances together with the A tsa ra. In that context he appeared to be more of a spectator than a dance figure, since he was mainly seated on a chair beside the dance ground during the performances. 61 While Hwa shang was venerated and treated respectfully in the monasteries just mentioned, at other monasteries his figure was also ridiculed and pushed around in disrespect during the ritual dance. 62 Considering the often turbulent history of Sino-Tibetan relations, Hwa shang s ambiguous treatment in ritual dances makes sense for Tibetan Bon pos and Buddhists alike, and even more so if, as in exile, he bows down in front of a Tibetan king. Conclusion In the final analysis of this article, and by comparing the multi-vocal opinions on the meaning of Hwa shang in different contexts, I come to the conclusion that Hwa shang iconically represents Tibetan relations with Chinese authorities. These relations are shifting throughout time and according to location. Therefore, Hwa shang s dance remains open to re-interpretation and identity construction of different Tibetan communities and interest groups. In A mdo Shar khog, however, his appearance in the annual ritual dances of Rin spungs, and his local interpretations, recall turbulent Sino-Tibetan border interactions involving both armed conflict 58 al communication. Sman ri khri dzin was educated at the monastery of Skyang tshang in Shar khog, where he was also the dance master ( cham dpon) for several years. In Indian exile, he compiled together with other Bon po monks the present sequence and choice of ritual dances at his monastery, orienting them more towards the Central Tibetan Sman ri tradition of dances and historically specific protector deities of this monastery. 59 Generally speaking, in most ritual dances the A tsa ra represent Indian yogis or scholars; see Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Tibetan Religious Dances, and C. Cantwell, Some thoughts on Chams: the role of the Jokers, A-tsa-ra, The Tibet Journal 12, no. 1 (1987): I also came across another local interpretation in A mdo claiming that they represent Indian doctors who are searching for medicinal herbs in the Tibetan mountains. 60 This particular Bon protective deity is part of nine main protectors of the Bon religion who participate in the so-called Gshen rab dgu cham; see S. G. Karmay, Three Sacred Bon Dances ( Cham), in Zlos-Gar, ed. J. Norbu (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1986), Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Tibetan Religious Dances, 43-44, Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Tibetan Religious Dances, 82, 83.

21 Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 2 (August 2006) 21 and resolution back into place. For Rin spungs monks, the central figure remains their eminent bla ma who was not only able to resolve the conflict but was even rewarded by the potentially hostile imperial power. There can also be no doubt that in the collective memory of at least the older generation of Shar ba born between the 1930s and early 1950s, the former territorial border between Shar khog and Songpan is not forgotten. The border has been transformed in the sense of an ever newly negotiable and relational identity of Tibetans vis-à-vis their Chinese neighbors and the state at large situated in the massive historical and political changes of the past fifty years. Ritual dances can evoke the past glory and historical imaginations through their annual performances, whereby lay sponsors supporting their monastery and religious traditions are publicly acknowledged. An older lay Shar ba, when hearing about Rin spungs monks peculiar interpretation of Hwa shang, rather polemically shrugged his shoulders, saying that since then the Chinese must have changed dramatically in their behavior towards the Tibetans (implying from more respectful to more aggressive intrusive behavior). Many Shar ba today watch with concern the ever-growing numbers and influence of Chinese settlers, business people, and traders in their former territory, north of Songpan town, especially along the main road. Defining the border as a transitional zone between two cultures, Gupta and Ferguson relocate issues of cultural differences away from original territory into diasporic, immigrant, colonized, and other global contexts. 63 Displaced and deterritorialized cultures look out for strategies of re-territorializing cultural space. One possible strategy is the production of ritual space, by reclaiming and reinterpreting territory and history through ritual performance according to present needs. In both modern China and in exile, Tibetan ritual practices which reclaim history in their own specific ways, such as in the case of the Hwa shang ritual dance, can be understood as an act of re-territorialization, creating a ritual space where identities can be locally reconstructed along group- and community-related lines in various individual ways. Such local identities also have to be negotiated with ever-changing socio-political relations between Tibetans and Chinese, a subject that historically, presently and contextually speaking does play a different but very active and important role in local identity re-constructions among the Shar ba. Hwa shang at the border remains an ambiguous figure. On one hand, his local interpretations are historical imaginations with the ultimate religious cum political authority remaining among high-ranking bla mas responsible for peace in the area. On the other, Hwa shang can be understood in terms of a local historical counter-narrative to the dominant and all-absorbing discourse of the state connecting human and non-human authorities of the past with present cosmologies of identities. 63 A. Gupta and J. Ferguson, Beyond Culture : Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference, Cultural Anthropology 7, no. 1 (1992): 6-23.

22 Schrempf: Hwa shang at the Border 22 Video of a Ritual Dance Hwa shang Ritual Dance (Click here to view online).