Presentation given at the workshop on Minority Languages of the Chinese Tibetosphere at Uppsala University, Nov 3-4 2014.

1. An Insider’s View of
Gyalrong Languages and Identities
Tenzin Jinba
Workshop on Minority Languages of the Chinese Tibetosphere, Uppsala

3. Mt. Murdu (rgyal mo dmu rdo)

4. Eastern Queendom

5. Prominent Figures From Gyalrong
a. Nyamme Sherab Gyaltsen (1356-1415 ) – “Second Buddha”
in Bon; founder of Menri Monastery
b. Tsakho Ngawang Drakpa (1365-1431) – disciple of
Tsongkhapa
c. Rongton Mawai Senge (1367-1449) – founder of Nalendra
Monastery; a major Sakya scholar
d. Khyenrab Wangchuk – 76th Ganden Tripa (Throne-holder of
the Gelugpa; 1853-1869): tutor to the 12th Dalai Lama &
regent of Tibet
• Seven (or more) Ganden Tripas from Gyalrong in total
• More recorded in Religious History of Amdo (mdo smad chos
'byung)

6. Even so,
are the
Gyalrongwa Tibetans

7. Gyalrongwa’s Problematic Tibetanness
More than the language?

8. Gyarong Wedding &
Angry Tibetan
Netizens
• I was extremely ashamed
when I saw their wedding.
Is that a Tibetan
wedding?
• I think these people are
probably protesting
against the guru (referring
to the Dalai Lama).
• I really hope they are not
Tibetan.

9. Two Angles
 Political and Cultural Histories
 Gyalrong Languages & Internal Diversity

10. Angle I:
Gyalrong Languages & Internal Diversity

11. Gyalrong Language Classification

12. Some Questions on
Gyalrong Languages and Identity Making
1. Are various Gyalrong dialects NOT
Tibetan?

13. An Examination of Eastern rGyalrong (Situ)
A. Historical Pronunciations
a. A “complete” pronunciation
• བརྒྱ (brgya): hundred
• སྤྱང་ཁུ (spyang khu): wolf
• འབྲོག་པ ('brog pa): nomad
• འབས ('bras): rice

14. b) preserved voiced consonants
• ཀ  ཁ
ཀྱིམ (kyim)  ཁྱིམ (khyim) family
• པ  ཕ
པག (pag) ཕག (phag) pig
• ཅ  ཆ
ཅུ (cu)  ཆུ (chu) water
• ཏ  ཐ
ཏྲོད (tod)  ཐྲོད (thod) forehead
• ཙ  ཚ
འཙེར ('tser )  འཚེར ('tsher ) fear

15. B. Historical Spellings and Expressions
a) preserved historical vocabulary
ཤུ (shu): hair
ར ྲོ(rpo): hilltop
ཀ་ཙེས (ka tses): speak
འྲོར་ཆེ('or che): “Thank you”
བྱི་ཡྱི(bi yi): mouse
ལ་འུ(la ’u): fast

16. b) preserved a more complex word structure
དེ་མྱག (de myag): eye
དེ་སེམས (de sems): thinking
དེ་ཁ (de kha): mouth
དེ་ཟ (de za): food

17. 2. Is there a common language across
Gyalrong?
• Tibetan
• Situ (Eastern rGyalrong)
• Sichuan Chinese

18. 3. Is there a common identity among the
native population in Gyalrong?
Complex, but yes
Four Circumstances
• Historical loss of Gyalrong identity
• Historical ambivalence of Gyalrong identity
• Ongoing withdrawal from Gyalrong identity
• Contemporary dilution of Gyalrong identity

19. 4. Do Gyalrong natives consider themselves
as Tibetans?
• Tibetans = Zangzu (藏族) = Bod pa?

20. Angle II:
Political and Cultural Histories

21. I. Zhang Zhung period （? – 7th Century):
1) Tibetan manuscripts
Chieftains & Migration from Zhang Zhung
a. about 1800BC?
Öden Mikar ('od ldan mi dkar) – Likwer Tsenna(lha) Rapten Gyelpo
(lig wer btsan na (lha) rab brtan rgyal po)
b. about 1100BC?
Khyungpak Tramo (khyung 'phags khra mo) & Lhase Yungdrung (lha
sras g.yung drung)
2) Chinese Sources:
Administrative Expansion of the Chinese Empire
Historical Records《史记》(27th?–1st centuries BC) : Ranmang 冉駹
Book of the Later Han《后汉书》(6-189): Wenshan 汶山
History of Northern Dynasty (386-581)《北史》
& Book of Sui (581-618)《隋书》: Ruoshui Xishan 弱水西山

22. II. Tibetan Empire Period (7th – 9th Centuries)
Tibetan Empire and Tang competed over Gyalrong, but most
of this region was governed by Tibet.

23. III. From Song to Republic Era
a. Political engagement with Central Tibet
- Gyelkha Ngashtsa Tsewang (རྒྱལ་ཁ་ངཤྱི་ཚེ་དབང) served as the mayor of Taktse
Dzong (སྟག་རེ་རྲོང) in Central Tibet in the 18th century.
b. Religious interactions with Central Tibet, Amdo and Kham
- Stronghold of Bonpo & rediffusion of Bon to Central Tibet
- Engagement with Buddhist masters & Development of Buddhism in
Gyalrong: Berotsana, Tsongkhapa, Situ Tenpe Nyinje (སྱི་ཏུ་བསྟན་པའྱི་ཉྱིན་བེད),
Gungtang Tenpe Drönme (གུང་ཐང་བསྟན་པའྱི་སྲོན་མེས) , Jamyang Zhepa (འཇམ་དབངས་བཞད་
པ), etc.
- Strengthened ties with the Gelugpa regime in Central Tibet since the
Jinchuan Battles.
c. Interaction with the Chinese empire
- Tusi System

24. Jinchuan Battles (1747～1776) and Their Implications

25. IV. The New China Period (since 1950)
- Dispersal of Gyalrong into Kardze and
Ngawa
- The Minzu Paradigm: From Gyalrongzu to
Zangzu
- Dilution and Loss of Historical Memories

26. Gyalrong as a window
to language, identity and social changes in the Chinese Tibetosphere

27. Welcome your feedbacks.
gyarongtenzin@gmail.com
Thank you!