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AN EIGHTY-YEAR CELEBRATION FOR A STAG MA TIBETAN MAN

AN EIGHTY-YEAR CELEBRATION FOR A STAG MA TIBETAN MAN    By བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། Bkra shis rgya mtsho   On Saturday, January 21, 2023,  an 80-year celebration was held for Stag ma, which was the 30th day of the 12th lunar month, 2022. From 9 AM to 2 PM, I participated in the celebration, which was held in #1, Wa shur Village, Thang mgo (Tanggu) Town, 'Ba' rdzong (Tongde) County, Mtsho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China.   Film length: 30 minutes, 47 seconds   Photographer, writer, editor: Bkra shis rgya mtsho བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།  (Zhaxijiancuo 扎西尖措) using an iPhone 12 Pro Max.   The main character    Stag ma (Stag phrug thar) was born in 1944 in #3 Brigade Klu lung Village. When he was 18, he married Rin chen mtsho (Ri mtsho, b. 1942) and moved to #1 Brigade Wa shur Village. They had 3 children: Dga' rab rdo rje (b. 1964), Rdo rje sgrol ma (b. 1968), and Phur ba skyabs (b. 1980). Stag ma lived with his younger son's (Phur ba skyabs) family. Stag ma is my (Bkra shis rgya mtsho) maternal uncle. He was a locally famous hunter.    Eighty-year celebration   Historically and locally, there were 4 celebration parties during a person's life – a birthday party, a 3-year-old haircutting party, a wedding party, and an 80-year celebration. On the day of the last celebration, on the 1st, 3rd, or 13th day of the 1st lunar month, the celebrant gets up in the early morning, shaves, cuts their hair, washes their face, and puts on such new clothes as a blue sash, a white shirt, a white felt or fox-fur hat, a traditional lambskin or sheepskin robe, and Tibetan-style leather boots. They prepare to welcome visitors before sunrise when neighbors send New Year gifts.    Parents tell their children to ask the celebrant for good wishes and longevity blessings. Tea bricks, white silk scarves, Tibetan cakes, and rgyal bo bread are typical gifts. The 8-year-old typically exchanges a silk scarf with those bringing gifts, signifying, "I give my age to you, and may you live 100 years."   Traditionally, neighbors, close friends, sworn brothers, and close relatives attended this celebration. Historically, such celebrations were rare, but they are more commontoday, thanks to longer life spans.    Family condition Stag ma's family at the time of the celebration included Rin chen mtsho (Ri mtsho, b. 1942), Stag ma(b. 1944), Phur ba skyabs (b. 1980), daughter-in-law (Mtsho skyid yag, b.1977), grandson (Gsang bdag rdo rje, b. 1998), granddaughter (Bsod nams dbang mo, b. 2000), granddaughter (Chos mtsho yag, b.2002), and grandson ('Jam dbyangs rig pa'i rdo rje, b. 2009).    The family had 700 mu (46.9 hectares) of winter pasture, 86 mu (5.8 hectares), 20 mu (1.3 hectares) of plowed fields in the summer pasture, 220 sheep, 100 yaks, 2 horses, vehicles (Ford. a Toyota taxi, a truck), 2 豪爵magnate, a bungalow (9.9*5.9 sq.m., 19.8* 22 sq.m. yard) in Wa shur Village, a bungalow (9.9*5.9 sq.m., 19.8* 22 sq.m. yard) at Kho rgya New Village, and an 84 square meter apartment in the local 'Ba' rdzong (Tongde) New County Town.     Preparation and expenditure   A Mongolian sheepskin robe from Sog rdzong County (Henan), Rma lho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture for Stag ma cost 10,000 RMB.  Seven sheep carcasses (0.5 kg of mutton cost 31 RMB for a total mutton cost of ~ 13,000 RMB, 300 tea bricks at 25 RMB each (7,500 RMB), and apples, oranges, jujube, persimmons, plums, mangoes, vegetables, candies, and other items totaling ~10,000 RMB.    Twenty days before the celebration day, family members were busy preparing. Neighbors came to help fry bread, prepare dumplings and Tibetan cakes, and send oral WeChat invitations to the village WeChat group, the tribe's tantric monk groups (a son is a tantric monk), and certain relatives in other villages. Thirty-four monk and tantick monks all from the same tribe joined the party to chant from 9:30 AM to 2 PM. The host family gave each monk 100 RMB, a tea brick, and a white silk scarf. All attendees, except the monks, presented gifts of a tea brick and white scarf. An estimated 400 attendees were at the celebration. Attendees gave cash gifts ranging from 50-2,000 RMB and such items as bottles of liquor, Tibetan cakes, tea bricks, Tibetan woolen items, hand prayer wheels, and traditional scripture volumes. The total cost of the celebration was approximately 40,000 RMB. The value of the gifts was about 35,000 RMB.    Special Thanks Thanks to Stag ma son (Dga' rab rdo rje, a tantric monk, b. 1944) and grandson (Gsang bdag rdo rje, b.1998) for providing information.   Tibetan Terms   'ba' rdzong འབའ་རྫོང་། 'jam dbyangs rig pa'i rdo rje འཇམ་དབྱངས་རིག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ།  bkra shis rgya mtsho བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ།  bsod nams dbang mo བསོད་ནམས་དབང་མོ།  chos mtsho yag ཆོས་མཚོ་ཡག  dga' rab rdo rje དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ།  gsang bdag rdo rje གསང་བདག་རྡོ་རྗེ།  kho rgya ཁོ་རྒྱ།  klu lung ཀླུ་ལུང་།  mtsho lho མཚོ་ལྷོ། mtsho skyid yag མཚོ་སྐྱིད་ཡག mtsho sngon མཚོ་སྔོན།  phur ba skyabs ཕུར་བ་སྐྱབས།  rdo rje sgrol ma རྡོ་རྗེ་སྒྲོལ་མ།  ri mtsho རི་མཚོ།  rin chen mtsho རིན་ཆེན་མཚོ། rma lho རྨ་ལྷོ།  sog rdzong སོག་རྫོང་། stag ma སྟག་མ།  stag phrug thar སྟག་ཕྲུག་ཐར།  thang mgo ཐང་མགོ།  wa shur ཝ་ཤུར།    Chinese Terms   Hainan海南 Haojue豪爵 Henan河南 Huangnan黄南 mu亩 Qinghai 青海 Tanggu唐谷 Tongde 同德 Zhaxijiancuo 扎西尖措 21 March 2023

ShareScore

40/100

Overall dataset sharing score

Score breakdown

These five areas show where the dataset supports — or may limit — practical reuse.

Stewardship: 8
Harmonization: 4
Access: 16
Reuse readiness: 8
Engagement: 4

Topics

Sog rdzong County (Henan), Stag ma, Tibetan longevity celebration, Tibetan 80th birthday, Bkra shis rgya mtsho, Tibetan pastoral gatherings