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

Welcome your feedbacks.

gyarongtenzin@gmail.com

Thank you!