Tibetan Sherpa dancer keeping traditions alive

LHASA－Namkha, 57, enjoys dancing in front of her 7-month-old granddaughter, showing her traditional Sherpa dance moves.

"My oldest student is over 40, and the youngest is my granddaughter," Namkha said with a smile, adding that she hopes her granddaughter will also pass on traditional Sherpa dancing one day.

Living in Dinggye county's Zhentang township in the Tibet autonomous region, Namkha is an inheritor of the Zhentang Sherpa dance, a national intangible cultural heritage.

Surrounded by primeval forests at the foot of Mount Qomolangma (which is known as Mount Everest outside of China), the township deep in the Himalayas lies at an altitude of 2,000 meters and is home to more than 2,600 Sherpa.

Standing in a circle or a semicircle, the dancers, who are mostly women, sing and dance with interchanging rhythms. They wear traditional folk dress, including a silver waist belt, a cap decorated with flowers and peacock feathers, and accessories like gold earrings and a necklace consisting of silver rings.

Born into a farming family, Namkha has liked dancing since she was a child. She began to learn Sherpa dancing from village elders when she was 15, becoming the youngest of its performers.

When she was in her early 20s, she often danced until midnight after a hard day in the fields, even though her parents said that dancing was a waste of time and affected her farmwork.

"After dancing late into the night, I didn't dare go home for fear of waking my parents up and being scolded. Once, I even slept in the cowshed," she recalled.

When she was 25, Namkha became a lead dancer and began performing at wedding ceremonies, festivals and galas all over Tibet.

She became a regional political adviser and went to Lhasa to attend the annual regional two sessions－gatherings of Tibet's top legislators and advisers－for the first time in early 2007. She trekked through snow for two days to reach the nearest road before a car picked her up and took her to the regional capital.

Understandably, one of her first proposals to the two sessions was about developing roads for her hometown, but other proposals she submitted during her five-year term concerned forest protection and the preservation of Sherpa culture.

A concrete road has since been added, ending her township's isolation and enabling Namkha and her fellow Sherpas to reach the outside world more easily.

In 2011, she was part of a team that visited Qingdao, a port city in Shandong province, to attend an exchange event on intangible cultural heritage inheritance. It was the first time Namkha had taken a plane.

During the flight, many passengers were curious about her traditional dress and kept asking to take photos with her. "I was so nervous and shy that I forgot to fasten my seat belt," she said with a laugh, adding that a flight attendant later came to help.

Exposed to bullet trains, high-rise buildings and the urban life of Qingdao, it was at the event that she realized the importance of education.

"I was the only illiterate person taking part. Young people should go to school to keep up with the times," she said.

Her husband Lhawang likes showing videos of his wife dancing to other people on his mobile phone.

"When she goes out dancing, I take care of our granddaughter," said the 53-year-old, who works in construction.

During his spare time, he patrols the nearby forests that are now part of the Qomolangma National Nature Reserve.

Their son, Sidar, shoots photos and videos for a multimedia center at the county seat. Although he is not interested in dancing, he supports his mother in passing on the cultural heritage.

"The traditional Zhentang Sherpa dance is important. I'd like to make some contribution to its preservation, like shooting documentaries about it," he said.

With government support, the township's villages have created a troupe that generally counts 16 members. The government has also poured money into building performance centers where they can dance.

Namkha now has 10 students－three in their 40s, four in their 30s and three in their 20s－and she plans to teach others.

"More young people should get involved in passing the dance on to future generations," she said.

Xinhua