Skal Bzang Nor Bu, Zhu Yongzhong & Kevin Stuart:

Gnyan thog? Village, Gnyan thog Township, Tongren County, Rma lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is located in the east-central part of Qinghai? Province in China Northwest. Located west of the Rong bo River near Tongren Town, the village is home to 250 families and a total population of 1,500.

Village mountain deity altar.

Gnyan thog residents are officially classified as Monguor (Tu), a Mongolic race deeply influenced by Tibetan Buddhism. Monguor number more than 220,000 and dwell in Qinghai and Gansu provinces. Their language has many affinities with Mongol, Tibetan, and Chinese.

Tongren County is a historical center of thankha painting and Gnyan thog is famous for its thankha painters and its beautiful village temple decorated with intricate colorful thankhas and exquisite sculpture.

ORIGIN OF GNYAN THOG ANCIENT CASTLE Today, most village homes are on the site of an ancient castle. An old villager, Myi rkyang, gave the following account related to the castle origin:

The emperor gave silver to the local headman, Rab brtan, to build a local castle. The headman studied the topography and finally chose the place where the castle remains are located today. He had his men build walls on three sides, but not on the south side, because the riverbed on the fourth side provided a natural defense. He built a temple with the money he saved.

Later some people falsely charged him with corruption. This to his arrest and, finally, he was beheaded in Xining. Milk came out of his body when he was killed, just as he uttered his last words, proving the punishment was unjust. The emperor then sent officials to investigate. They found the temple nearby and a picture of the emperor in it, which confirmed his honesty and loyalty to the emperor.

A wutu walks from one home roof to another with bread given by villagers.

WUTU ORIGINS. Villagers hold a famous ritual in winter—wutu—on the twentieth day of the eleventh lunar month to expel all negativities of the past year from the village.

Some scholars argue that wutu means “tiger” and that it derives from the language of the Chu people, who lived during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) mainly in today’s Hunan Province and that it was brought to the village by immigrants. These scholars contend that wutu is a ceremonial offering of sacrifices to mountain deities and that it has been performed for more than 150 years.

Other scholars believe this dance is not from outside, but that it is a remainder of ancient tiger totem worship. They point out that Qiang people worshipped the tiger as a totem, and the Yi, who are related to the Qiang, retain the tiger totem dance, and other nationalities such as Luoba, Tujia, and Pumi also venerate and have taboos concerning tigers.
Myi rkyang gave this account for
wutu origin:

Once the emperor became seriously ill. No medicine or religious activity could make him any better. Rab brtan, the local headman then visited the emperor and promised to try whatever religious means he could think of to cure the emperor’s illness when he returned home. He did his best, but he still could not make the emperor any better.

One night some days later, the local deity, Ru Lang (Erlang) visited him in a dream and indicated that the emperor’s illness would be cured and he could have a long life if certain religious rituals that we now call wutu were performed. Rab brtan next ordered local people to do what Ru Lang had described in his dream.

Wutu run through burning straw, a ritual of purification,before reentering the village.

Finally, the emperor recovered from the illness and it was believed that the ritual had worked. The emperor was very pleased to be well and ordered Rab brtan to perform the ritual every year for the purpose of benefiting the local village and the entire kingdom, as well as the emperor himself.

BANG CEREMONIES On the night of the nineteenth, the day before the wutu ceremony, young village men go to Ru lang Temple situated on a hill west of the village to perform ceremonial religious activities called bang, or an offering of sacrifices to local mountain gods. They chant, perform religious ceremonial dances, sing folksongs and love songs, drink liquor, and chat. Bang is also performed on the eighth, twelfth, and fourteenth days of the same lunar month in the village. Women may attend. Incense and liquor are offered to the mountain deities. People believe that the mountain deities will especially help childless couples have babies if they make offerings during these days.

WUTU RITUAL Seven young men 16-35 years of age are selected to perform wutu. The selection is based on the village leader’s recommendation and the young men’s willingness. Some young men are willing to perform it and others are not. Some do it only because village corvee labor is not required of them for the ensuing year. Once selected, a person usually performs wutu for three years running. During the ceremony the actors are also called wutu.

At about two o’clock in the afternoon, the seven wutu, a trance medium, one or two thangka painters, and the templekeeper go to the Ru lang Temple. Young village boys follow and watch. The seven wutus first go to the mountain god altar near the temple. They remove birch branches from the altar and cut them with their knives until they each have two sticks approximately two meters in length that they take with them back to the temple.

Village deities assembled before offerings of flowers, liquors, bread and fruit at a summer festival.

Next, Ru lang is offered liquor. The seven men remove their upper clothing and role up their trousers, exposing their thighs. Then they smear incense ash on their bodies. The ash is whitish and provides a good base for the artists to paint tiger stripes using black ink mixed with liquor. Pictures of deity heads are also painted on the chests of some wutu. A piece of white paper is tied in the hair of every wutu. The wutus’ sticks are also decorated with small pieces of white paper at one end.

Every wutu also carries a knife at his waist in which he later uses to cut up mutton in the village. The trance medium wears a Tibetan robe and five-Buddha hat (rigs lnga), and he holds a flat drum and drumstick. The wutu may drink liquor to keep warm because temperatures are sub-freezing.

The wutu hold their sticks and kneel in front of the Ru lang image. The trance medium drums while the templekeeper offers liquor to each wutu, which requires them to immediately be silent and remain so until the ceremony is concluded. Then they turn back, form a line, and dance out of the temple, with the trance medium drumming and another young man beating a gong behind. They circle the square in front of the temple.

Afterwards, as boys shout and firecrackers crackle, the five youngest wutus run as fast as possible down the hillside to the village. Meanwhile, the two oldest wutus dance slowly to the village along a path. Behind them walks the trance medium beating his drum and the young man beating his gong. The two oldest wutus do not climb over walls and visit homes.

By now villagers are standing on the flat tops of their adobe houses to better observe the proceedings. Women hold round pieces of baked bread with holes in the centers. Every home also prepares cooked beef or mutton, which may be eaten or taken by wutu.

Once the five youngest wutus reach the village, they divide into two groups and climb up the walls of home compounds. They jump to a roof of one house and then cross over to the next. It is taboo for them to go into a home courtyard through the gate. It is believed that if they do so the evil beings may follow. The wutu may climb down to the yard using a ladder that may be against the roof and enter the home to have meat and soup that have already been prepared, and then leave through the gate. Men on the roofs often assist by pulling them up. Women put pieces of bread on the sticks. Most village homes are visited in this fashion. Afterwards, they wait for the two oldest wutus near the village entrance.

When the two oldest wutus, the trance medium, and the young man beating the gong reach the village entrance, old men offer strips of white silk to the trance medium and both raw and cooked meat to the wutu, which the latter grip with their teeth. Holding the meat reminds them not to speak and it is also believed that evils follow food, thus the meat entices evils out of the village. The meat also resembles a long tongue that would belong to some terrifying ghost, further frightening evils in the village.

At this moment, villagers converge along the village alley and on roofs. Women put bread on the wutus’ sticks as they pass by. Males light firecrackers. When the sticks are heavy with bread, children may collect the bread and later return it to the wutu. Ill elders may lie down along the way so that the wutu will jump over them. Ill people may also roll rtsam pa dough on their bodies and give it to the wutu in the hope that the illness will be taken away.

Village trance medium with gong player and ritual performers.

Once all the wutu are again together, villagers crowd around them. All the wutu dance. Then as people shout, firecrackers rattle-tattle, and guns are fired, all the wutu rush out of the village towards the stream at the base of the village and throw their sticks and some bread into the river. Next they wash ink and ash from their bodies, put on their clothing that have been brought by children, and head wearily back to the village.

At the village entrance, straw is burned. The wutu jump over it, which keeps evils from following them. This marks an end to the ceremony that lasts a total of about two hours. That evening the wutu gather to eat the meat and bread collected from village families.

On the same day, in Hor rgya Village located on the opposite side of the stream just mentioned, families position empty baskets at Gnyan thog Village to keep the dispelled evils from entering their village. Once, according to informants, many Hor rgy villagers became seriously ill from by evil beings chased out of Gnyan thog by the wutu.

A SIMILAR CEREMONY In most Tibetan villages of Rdo sbis (Daowei) Township) in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, about 100 kilometers south of Tongren, similar religious ceremonies are performed. On the seventh day of the first lunar month, the “black day” (nyin nag), monks are invited to the village temple for vbar ma, a religious activity to expel evils from the village. The vbar ma, a female figure that resembles a devil, is made of rtsam pa.

Monks chant and then put the vbar ma in a small sedan decorated with strips of colored cloth. In each home, people roll rtsam pa on their bodies to remove illness, and mark the ages of all family members on small pieces of birch for males and willow for females with charcoal. Each mark signifies one year of age. The rtsam pa and the pieces of wood are taken to the temple and put in the sedan.

Families also offer small amounts of money and small strips of colored cloth to the vbar ma. Then the sedan is picked up and carried by four young men as male villagers set off firecrackers, shoot guns, whistle, and females throw dirt at the men. The men carry the sedan to an appointed place without looking back. To do so would allow the evils to return to the village. When the sedan bearers return to the village, they wear their caps reversed so that the brims point to the rear. They also put stones along the path to the village. This is all done to prevent evils from following them.