The Tibetan people

The Kasi Dawen Dance, also called "Armature Dance," is popular in Upper Heishui and Small Heishui of Heishui County, Sichuan Province .

The dance is a time-honored folk tradition for offering sacrifices to the gods or ancestors. In the past, it was mainly performed during burial ceremonies for martyrs and before a battle to pray for victory and safety for the fighters.

The number of dancers ranged from one or two to more than 10. They danced passionately, blaring out their emotions to achieve a grand performance that vividly captured the heroic, bold and unconstrained character of the people and their history.

The dancers wore a suit of armor, pheasant leathers or a crash helmet on their heads and leather shoes, wielding long swords, pikes or guns in their hands. They first danced in a circle and then formed two lines. During the dance, their weapons collided, the copper bells on their shoulders jingled and the dancers roared loudly, demonstrating the martial mettle of the Qiang and Tibetan people when fighting the enemy for survival of their people.

The procession of the dancers began in the village. Leaving the village, the dancers stood in a circle, dancing, and the village women also joined in with a farewell dance for their loved ones on their way to the battlefield. Their movements were similar to those of the men, and the dance followed the rhythm of slow lyrics with quick dance steps. When the dance was about to conclude, the men scabbard their swords and touched their pikestaffs to the ground; then, both men and women respectively gave out loud, sonorous shouts, portraying a solemn and stirring scenario before the fighters went off to the battle. Every time the dance was performed, people young and old -- aged 15 to 70 -- had to participate.

Dance performance

The Qiang people

As mentioned above, the dancers wore a suit of armor during the Kasi Dawen Dance. The armor basically falls into four categories: armor made of lacquer ox hide, elephant skin, rattan and sheet iron. Among them, armor made of lacquer ox hide was most commonly used, and it can be subcategorized into whole-sheet armor and pieced armor, among which the latter was more widely used.

In E'en Village of Heishui County, the dance was performed on the oblong grain-drying yard which was 40 meters long and 20 meters wide. On one side of the yard were grain-drying shelves, on the other side, a valley, and the two left ends featured typical stone castles of Jiaorong Tibetans.

A dance usually took seven to eight minutes to complete and consisted of three basic parts. The first part was an introductory performance where 24 Tibetan men (two in armor and one in a red Tibetan otter hide robe) stood in a line -- the elderly and sainted ones to the left and the young ones to the right - armed with a knife or sword. A middle-aged man used an ox horn jug to pour a bowl of wine for the fighters going to battle, which was passed down from left to right. Meanwhile, an old man sprinkled wine from the bowl into the sky using his fingers while praying solemnly and loudly in Tibetan to show respect to the gods and to ask for protection. The whole process took about two to three minutes.

After the old man finished his prayer, the second part of the dance began and the procession proceeded clockwise, featuring the characteristics of Tibetan song and dance. Almost all Tibetan folk dances featured clockwise movements -- the same direction as Tibetans rotated the prayer wheel and walked around temples in their daily lives. Guided by the leading elder, the warriors in the dancing procession sang a sad, solemn song and now and then belted out: "Ou! … Ha!" at the top of their lungs. All the dancers sang and danced along the grain-drying yard, moving in quick, short steps with their backs in a half-bow, producing various primitive and typical Tibetan dance movements. In the third round, the procession neared its climax, with rising voices and faster movements. After two rounds of a snake-shaped procession inside the yard, the dance entered the third part, where the warriors' emotions and their yearning for the extinct national spirit were fully unleashed.

Performing styles

The Kasi Dawen Dance is based on the "Dazang Dance" of the ancient Qiang people, and is also influenced to some extent by the Shaman Dance of Tibetan Buddhism . Therefore, it is safe to say that the Armature Dance in E'en Village is actually the result of the blending of Tibetan and Qiang cultures.

The basic dance movements, such as bowing the waist, arching the back, moving in quick, short steps, shaking small bells, and so on, typically featured the straightforward, sonorous, extraordinarily brave and warlike dance characteristics of ethnic groups in mountainous regions; its vivid dance rhythms also left a deep impression on spectators. During the dance, the moves combined syncopated and mixed beats, which made the rhythm wild and free.

Due to the special cantus of the Armature Dance, the dancers can make better use of the rhythm to produce grand and forceful artistic glamour. However, some scholars say this kind of glamour is actually a common characteristic of all dances performed by the Qiang people.

Religious and social functions

The Kasi Dawen Dance has many religious and social functions, such as social control, conforming society, regulating behavior, adjusting people's mentality and refining people's sentiments.

The religious functions can be defined in terms of three aspects: alliance among villages, showing off military exploits and enhancing friendship among different ethnic groups, and offering sacrifices to gods or ancestors.

In history, different villages frequently waged wars against each other due to disputes over grasslands, religion, etc. To ensure safety and to increase power, alliances between two or more villages often took place. On the ceremony of the alliance, the performance of the Kasi Dawen Dance was a must, which aimed to create an ardent atmosphere in an artistic manner.

When war broke out, the Kasi Dawen Dance was performed to see off fighters to the battlefield. In this case, the dance was used to flaunt military exploits, boost the morale of warriors and increase the friendship among people of the same ethnic group.
In times of peace, the dance was performed when offering sacrifices to gods or ancestors, or during military drills. The dance embodied people's sacred worship and could build up people's bodies and increase their strength.

Protective efforts

At a national conference on protecting China's traditional culture held in April 2004, the Kasi Dawen Dance of Heishui County in Sichuan Province, along with other 28 items, was included in the second phase of the National Folk Culture Protection Project.

After the conference, the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance in China issued a notice saying: "It is an important obligation of governments at different levels to protect the folk cultural heritage," and requiring local financial departments to include this protection in their financial budget. The notice also called on local authorities to set up related institutions to take charge of the protective measures.

It is reported that the Ministry of Finance has earmarked a special fund of 6 million yuan (US$723,000) for the preparatory work and research of the National Folk Culture Protection Project.