A Study Of The Traditional Tibetan Festivals And The Festival Cultures In Amdo

The Tibetan word Amdo refers to the northeastern part of Tibetan Plateau. Tibetan culture in Amdo, which had been laid foundation under the reign of the Tibetan Empire and has formed with the influence of Tibetan Buddhism, has combined with multi-ethnic and multicultural factors in her long history. Being an important part of Tibetan civilization, traditional Tibetan festivals in Amdo, also took various cultural elements in different historical stages. Therefore these festivals possess the characteristics of multi-cultures and regional features. The study of these festivals will greatly help us to understand the traditional Tibetan culture of Amdo.Although there are already some papers or books discussing about this subject, no monographic study on Tibetan traditional festivals in Amdo as a whole has been carried out in academic field so far. Therefore, it is necessary to lunch such a study. Based on some of the studies have done, in this thesis, the author divides traditional Tibetan festivals in Amdo into two groups: folk and Buddhist ones. For the first group, largely based on both historical sources and field works the author analyses the formation and development of the various regional popular festivals in entire Amdo area and illustrates the richness and variety of Tibetan traditional festivals in Amdo. For the second kind of festivals, the author tries to analyses how the religious festivals of Tibetan Buddhism have developed into the folk festivals.