Tibetan Buddhist "Flower Rack" Music of Ta'er Monastery
The "Huajia" band of Ta'er Monastery is a monk band specially set up for the production and display of butter sculptures. It has a history of more than 600 years. The music they play is called "Huajia music". Because Ta'er Monastery has two butter sculpture courtyards, the Huajia band also belongs to these two units. The band of the upper butter sculpture courtyard is called Jiezong Zengzha band, and the band of the lower butter sculpture courtyard is called Guomang Zengzha band. They are two bands of the same nature. The Huajia band is the only band in Tibetan Buddhist temples in Qinghai so far. From October to December of the lunar calendar every year, during the three-month butter sculpture production process, the Huajia band plays relevant music for each important production link of their respective butter sculpture courtyards. During the prayer ceremony in the first month of the lunar year, it is the period for the Huajia band to perform intensively. On the evening of the 15th day of the first lunar month, the butter sculptures that had been made in the two academies for more than three months were all put on the shelves. In the elegant and simple music, the magnificent butter sculptures, the bright moonlight and the flickering butter lamps complemented each other. The crowds gathered in front of the butter sculptures, intoxicated by the sea of flowers. In March 1951, seven monks from the Ta'er Temple Flower Frame Band participated in the Second National Folk Music and Dance Festival in Beijing as the main members of the Qinghai Group. Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou, Vice Chairman Liu Shaoqi and other party and state leaders watched the performance in person and took photos with the band. The Ta'er Temple is located in an area where Tibetan, Han, Mongolian, Tu and other ethnic cultures meet. The flower frame music has the characteristics of multi-ethnic cultural integration, complementarity, and inclusiveness of multiple cultures. It has the charm of Tibetan religious music and court music, the imprint of Han temple music, and the color of Mongolian folk music. It is the crystallization of multi-ethnic music integration and has irreplaceable historical and cultural value of other religious music and ethnic music. Huajia music is unique in its performance form. Generally, percussion and wind instruments are played alternately, and the two do not play together. The cloud gong is played along with the melody, which has both the sacredness of religious music and the elegance of classical music. Although the two Huajia music bands play basically the same music, they compete with each other during rehearsals and performances on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, and accept the judgment of the monks. The introduction of the competition mechanism into the band is also unique. Huajia music has a long history and complex inheritance. It has formed its own unique tune pattern, band structure and performance form. In addition, its unique performance environment has a great influence in the Tibetan Buddhist community and has academic research value in musicology, ethnology, folklore and other fields. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)