Langjia villagers dance to entertain the mountain gods during a festival. Photos by Mu Qian / China Daily
A medium carries out a blood offering ritual.
The little-known glu rol, or "sixth lunar month festival", in Qinghai province's Langjia village is a spectacular event replete with ancient customs, Mu Qian discovers.
Two boisterous crowds led by mediums representing the mountain gods met up in the center of the village, while women stood reverentially by the roadside holding milk and liquor. Accompanied by cymbals and gongs, the two mediums sprinkled the milk and liquor on the ground and danced as the crowd shrieked.
The tribal dance at Langjia village, Tongren county, Qinghai province, was part of the celebrations for the glu rol, or "sixth lunar month festival", which few outsiders had seen before the 1990s.
Celebrated by the Tibetans for a number of days every summer, the festival retains ancient customs that predate Tibetan Buddhism.
According to an anthropological report, the people of Langjia lived according to tribal customs before the 1960s, and the current division of villages is based on the original tribes. Thus each village has its own tutelary gods and related rituals.
Langjia is one of the tribe-villages, where two shrines are dedicated to the local mountain gods - Anilari (the mountain to the east of the village) and Ani'anhua (the mountain to the south of the village).
The two mediums representing the two gods were both in their 30s and appeared to be possessed. They performed a set of complicated dances and put ceremonial scarves around each other's necks.
One of the mediums had an unusual hair style as he had his forehead shaved, like people from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
"He still lives in the past," a villager told me.
To me, the whole scene seemed to be something from the past, except for a few tourists taking pictures. Some got too close to the mediums and were hit by their drumsticks.
The medium with a shaved forehead, who was possessed by the south mountain god, turned out to be principal for the day.
He danced his way to a square beside the shrine of his deity, where dancers from the village formed three circles, the one at the core made up of young boys. Dancers swirled in one direction and then the other, during which they would point their hands up to the sky.
