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Musical Flight in TibetAuthor(s): Ter Ellingson-WaughSource:
Asian Music, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1974), pp. 3-44Published by: University
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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 through- out
Inner and Northern Asia, Analogous religions in other regions, such
as the Americas, are probably related by dif- fusion; 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 relation- ship
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 ele- ments 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
con- text, 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 con- text 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 anthro-
pomorphic 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).
,4l e ,,bo 'me 4: - 9p S I
rn I r%--
r P n
kI- -A -
r"!
hS J I iI" I ia
[ " gx A I J _
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 -
I -IF I
' -
--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 imita- tion,
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 weather- makers,
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 ornamen- tation, 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)
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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 trum- pets 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 instru- ment, 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",
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I
I
MAP 2: DISTRIBUTION OF HORSE-HEADED AND P1-WANG (2-STRING
FIDDLE) - TYPE LUTES Ca toc~rafAt Dxk O'ut ine
Mu.1 ,\i.
No. i 7003.
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I .\ Ii.. ,-j II /: . ,, .. .
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fl IEANLTS
...!, i t. TIBE.T.,
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AIM F~idd , -'- -? As1~r?
~~411
Ir~
i216
rPubised by DENOYER-G-EP.'R CO.,
Chicago Coic Plojecton Cop~right (SiHes of occurrence of
horse-headed inshruments after Tsuge and Grame, 1970)
jiS:?J 4A 0~ ("-sites)i AMO% Fiddler c
\ ii ?ilk 1~_? TA
1!?"!wPblse b EOY RG PPRrCoCicg ,,ncPtjc=o Cpyih (Stso curec
fhreheddisrmnt fe sg adGae 90
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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 it- self 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
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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 orna- ments" 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 metal- lophones.
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 there- fore seem that Tibetan Bon religion, with its ideas of
musical "flight", blends into the tradi- tion 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
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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 instru- ments 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 manu-
scripts:
/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 be- come 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 con- cept 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 him- self 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 sub-
duing the fierce spirits, for the whole Tibetan society,
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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. 7 Transcription
Fig. 8 FM 125534
Fig. 9 FM 121376
Fig. 10 Transcription
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.
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-
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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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
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Padma'i rNam thar. Partial text and German translation in
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Bu ston rin chen Chos 'byung. 1322. Text excerpts and German
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dbyangs Seng ge'i Nga ro.
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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.
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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.
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00 I
:ii
i
-iii: iiiii
!! ? - : :
i:
F ig.1 Siberian shaman (18th century)
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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-
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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
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A
Tibetan drum divided into cosmic zones for divina- tion 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-
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N3
A104
::::~ ~ :' :c*;'I
ilk , :::~:-:,::: r:j?:::: - i.;: ::::i:o mf o 'k" i:;
eil~Z~il;;?-~:?:: ~ j; :::-JR
Fig. 8. A 'Cham dance
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"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-
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1 4*.
Ii TIW43 ops it IL" AK.
''41 19P ~ i
~i xf
A J :v,_
MI
Vbii
Fig. it. bon percussion notation
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09:24:42 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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]