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An Insider’s View of
Gyalrong Languages and Identities
Tenzin Jinba
Workshop on Minority Languages of the Chinese Tibetosphere, Uppsala
Mt. Murdu (rgyal mo dmu rdo)
Eastern Queendom
Prominent Figures From Gyalrong
a. Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen (1356-1415 ) – “Second Buddha” in Bon; founder of Menri Monastery
b. Tsakho Ngawang Drakpa (1365-1431) – disciple of Tsongkhapa
c. Rongton Mawai Senge (1367-1449) – founder of NalendraMonastery; a major Sakya scholar
d. Khyenrab Wangchuk – 76th Ganden Tripa (Throne-holder of the Gelugpa; 1853-1869): tutor to the 12th Dalai Lama & regent of Tibet
• Seven (or more) Ganden Tripas from Gyalrong in total
• More recorded in Religious History of Amdo (mdo smad chos'byung)
Even so,
are the Gyalrongwa Tibetans
Gyalrongwa’s Problematic Tibetanness
More than the language?
Gyarong Wedding & Angry Tibetan Netizens
• I was extremely ashamed when I saw their wedding. Is that a Tibetan wedding?
• I think these people are probably protesting against the guru (referring to the Dalai Lama).
• I really hope they are not Tibetan.
Political and Cultural Histories
Gyalrong Languages & Internal Diversity
Two Angles
Angle I: Gyalrong Languages & Internal Diversity
Gyalrong Language Classification
Some Questions on
Gyalrong Languages and Identity Making
1. Are various Gyalrong dialects NOT
Tibetan?
A. Historical Pronunciations
a. A “complete” pronunciation
• བརྒྱ (brgya): hundred
• སྤྱང་ཁུ (spyang khu): wolf
• འབྲོག་པ ('brog pa): nomad
• འབས ('bras): rice
An Examination of Eastern rGyalrong (Situ)
b) preserved voiced consonants
• ཀ ཁ ཀྱིམ (kyim) ཁྱིམ (khyim) family
• པ ཕཔག (pag) ཕག (phag) pig
• ཅ ཆཅུ (cu) ཆུ (chu) water
• ཏ ཐཏྲོད (tod) ཐྲོད (thod) forehead
• ཙ ཚ འཙེར ('tser ) འཚེར ('tsher ) fear
B. Historical Spellings and Expressions
a) preserved historical vocabularyཤུ (shu): hair
ར ྲོ (rpo): hilltop
ཀ་ཙེས (ka tses): speak
འྲོར་ཆེ ('or che): “Thank you”
བྱི་ཡྱི (bi yi): mouse
ལ་འུ(la ’u): fast
b) preserved a more complex word structure
དེ་མྱག (de myag): eye
དེ་སེམས (de sems): thinking
དེ་ཁ (de kha): mouth
དེ་ཟ (de za): food
2. Is there a common language across
Gyalrong?
• Tibetan
• Situ (Eastern rGyalrong)
• Sichuan Chinese
3. Is there a common identity among the
native population in Gyalrong?
Complex, but yes
Four Circumstances
• Historical loss of Gyalrong identity
• Historical ambivalence of Gyalrong identity
• Ongoing withdrawal from Gyalrong identity
• Contemporary dilution of Gyalrong identity
4. Do Gyalrong natives consider themselves
as Tibetans?
• Tibetans = Zangzu (藏族) = Bod pa?
Angle II: Political and Cultural Histories
I. Zhang Zhung period (? – 7th Century): 1) Tibetan manuscripts
Chieftains & Migration from Zhang Zhung
a. about 1800BC?
Öden Mikar ('od ldan mi dkar) – Likwer Tsenna(lha) Rapten Gyelpo(lig wer btsan na (lha) rab brtan rgyal po)
b. about 1100BC?
Khyungpak Tramo (khyung 'phags khra mo) & Lhase Yungdrung (lhasras g.yung drung)
2) Chinese Sources:
Administrative Expansion of the Chinese Empire
Historical Records《史记》(27th?–1st centuries BC) : Ranmang 冉駹Book of the Later Han《后汉书》(6-189): Wenshan 汶山History of Northern Dynasty (386-581)《北史》& Book of Sui (581-618)《隋书》: Ruoshui Xishan 弱水西山
II. Tibetan Empire Period (7th – 9th Centuries)
Tibetan Empire and Tang competed over Gyalrong, but most
of this region was governed by Tibet.
III. From Song to Republic Era
a. Political engagement with Central Tibet- Gyelkha Ngashtsa Tsewang (རྒྱལ་ཁ་ངཤྱི་ཚེ་དབང) served as the mayor of Taktse
Dzong (སྟག་རེ་རྲོང) in Central Tibet in the 18th century.
b. Religious interactions with Central Tibet, Amdo and Kham
- Stronghold of Bonpo & rediffusion of Bon to Central Tibet
- Engagement with Buddhist masters & Development of Buddhism in Gyalrong: Berotsana, Tsongkhapa, Situ Tenpe Nyinje (སྱི་ཏུ་བསྟན་པའྱི་ཉྱིན་བེད), Gungtang Tenpe Drönme (གུང་ཐང་བསྟན་པའྱི་སྲོན་མེས) , Jamyang Zhepa (འཇམ་དབངས་བཞད་པ), etc.
- Strengthened ties with the Gelugpa regime in Central Tibet since the
Jinchuan Battles.
c. Interaction with the Chinese empire - Tusi System
Jinchuan Battles (1747~1776) and Their Implications
IV. The New China Period (since 1950)
- Dispersal of Gyalrong into Kardze and
Ngawa
- The Minzu Paradigm: From Gyalrongzu to
Zangzu
- Dilution and Loss of Historical Memories
Gyalrong as a window to language, identity and social changes in the Chinese Tibetosphere