A Study On The History, Society, And Culture Of Tibetan Arig Tribe In Qinghai

This dissertation scrutinized Arig, an indigenous Tibetan nomadic tribe in Qinghai by inquiring systematically its history, religion, society, and cultures having the focus on the north branch of Arig in Qilian so as to strive for the reasons of the seclusion of Tibetan tribes at the present time and the approaches of transmission, protection, and development of their traditional cultures.Arig's origin, early development, migration, and tribal evolution were traced in the history part, during which it split into three branches. The historical documents were integrated to elucidate its distribution, the diachronic and synchronic, the longitudinal and cross-sectional methods of linguistics were borrowed to compare the modifications of the three branches after they embed into the current regions. The south branch of Arig in Seshul in Kham gradually melted into the local culture, but the unitary cultural environment was conducive to the perfect preservation of its traditions and Arig Monastery of Nyingma played a significant role in the local economy and society. Although the central branch became subordinates of the Kokonor Khoshoits south of the Yellow River in Qinghai and adopted the Mongol administration of tsan-ger system, the tibetanization of the Mongols in Henan was accelerated. The north branch in Qilian lived in the same region with diverse ethnic groups, such as Hui, Han, Mongol, Yugu, and Salar and hence displayed more traits of Han nationality and at the same time had stronger awareness of protection of their own ethnic traditions.The religious belief and the well-known monasteries of Arig were inquired by tracing back to the successive patron-priest bond between Arig and Pakpa, the Dalai Lamas, and the Panchen Lama. The customs in their folk faith and the belief in sacred mountains were also examined. Arig Tent Monastery of Geluk was taken as an example by dissecting its establishment, evolution, construction, meditation, and operation so as to appraise the social and cultural roles monasteries play in current China. The prosperity of monastery education and the declination of school education of the south branch were compared to the opposite circumstances in the north branch. The game between the two models suggested the inevitability of the prosperity of school education in the social transformation of Tibetan regions in current China.The theories of ethnic sociology were resorted to examine the traditional and modern social structures of Arig. The social and cultural attributes of the tribe were complementary to the political characteristics of the town-village administration since the tribal institution was abolished in 1950s developing the duality of the Tibetan regions in current China. The social transformation of Arig since 1980s from the traditional tribal nomadism to the semi-nomadism would be deepened in the new five-year (2009～2013) project intended to realize the centralized settlement that would entirely transform their traditional livelihood and residing patterns in the past thousands of years.The theories of anthropology, particularly oral history and the findings of field work were integrated to explore the primeval customs and vicissitudes of the tangible and intangible cultures of Arig. The findings suggested that the Tibetan clothing in being hanized, multifarious dietary has entered Arig's life, motorcycle has become the most popular vehicle, and the dwelling patterns diverted from scatteredness before 1980s to congregation after that whereas the separation of more than one settlements of the same family has arisen at present. Arig's marriage and funeral customs and taboos originated in their ancient folk beliefs and Tibetan Buddhism.To sum up, the dissertation was a breakthrough in the traditional study of Tibetan tribes with emphasis on their history that it integrated diverse means to associate history with reality. Moreover, the study in Arig's social transformation since 1980s and the findings in its primitive traits of folk customs and religious belief has been conducted for the first time in academic circles. It is a contribution to the writing of ethnography of Arig tribe.