苯教《平和威猛经》视野下的白马藏人面具舞

An Intepretation of the Masked Dance of the Baima Tibetans from the Perspective of The Bon Peace and Mighty Sutra

通过研究认为,白马藏人的面具舞,既不是"傩舞",也不是"十二相舞",白马藏族的面具舞与苯教平和威猛经《■》内容密切相关。白马藏人的面具舞是苯教平和威猛经的活态版本,是苯教平和威猛经的活态民俗演绎。苯教《平和威猛经大全》第32章就是这种面具舞蹈的专门篇章。认为这种面具舞的角色系始祖父母的化身,分男性神明角色与女性神明角色,完整版共计86种形象,兽首烈女版共计28种形象,简洁版共计男女2种形象。表演这种面具舞的目的是为了鼓励人们活着的时候树立正确的生死观,培养积极化解临终幻觉引起的死亡恐惧的心理能力。

From the perspective of geography,there is a group of people found in the eastern part of the Minshan Mountains on the southeastern of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.They are known as the Baima Tibetans,and arelocated along the border between Sichuan and Gansu Provinces in China,near the Chengdu Plain.The Baima Tibetans,also known as the Baima people,now live in Wen and Zhouqu counties in Gansu Province,and in Jiuzhaigou,Pingwu and Songpan counties in Sichuan Province.According to 2015 statistics,their population is about 20,000,they speak a local dialect of Tibetan as their mother tongue,and the majority of the population practices the Bon religion.The name“Baima”is the term used in Chinese historical texts.This name can be traced back to the Western Han period in the section titled the“Southwest Barbarians”in the Records of the Historian(shiji•xinanyi liezhuang).In the Tibetan language they are known“Tabu”.A popular dance performed by Baima Tibetans is known in Chinese as the“Baima Tibetan Masked Dance”.For a long time,academic circles have paid attention to the study of the masked dance of the Baima Tibetans.Some have interpreted it from the perspective of the Nuo dance,while others have interpreted it from the perspective of the twelve zodiac signs.However,our research proves that the masked dance of the Baima Tibetans is neither Nuo dance nor is it a dance of the twelve zodiac signs,but instead is closely related to the content of Benjiao Pinghe Weimeng Jing(The Bon Peace and Mighty Sutra),a Bon text.If it is understood in accordance with Benjiao Pinghe Weimeng Jing,the masked dance of the Baima Tibetans is,in fact,a living and concise version of the folkloric interpretation of the choreographed masked dance of Benjiao Pinghe Weimeng Jing.This idea that the masked dance of the Baima Tibetans is a dance of the Bon Sutra will be argued in the following ways:1)We went to Baima Tibetan areas twice in 2019 to conduct field surveys and acquired a lot of first-hand information.We fully took into account the commercial aspects of the Baima Tibetan Mask Dance performed in recent years for the purpose of tourism,and consciously focused on collecting research data which predates the period before the start of tourism in the Baima Tibetan region.2)From the view of the roles played,the roles in the simple version of the masked dance are divided into two categories:the role of the male deity as the incarnation of the first male clan ancestor,and the role of the female deity as the incarnation of the first female ancestor.To be more specific,the classification of the masked dance of Benjiao Pinghe Weimeng Jing is more complicated.In addition to the simple version with the divine male and female characters,there is also a version with the animal-headed martyred woman,This version is further divided into three main categories,with a total of 28 images.The most complete version has a total of 86 images.3)From the perspective of the purposefulness of mask dance,it aimed to encourage people to develop a correct attitude towards life and death while they are still alive,and to develop the psychological ability to actively resolve the fear of death caused by deathbed hallucinations.4)From a holistic view of the religious rituals associated with the performance of this masked dance,there are many programmed religious rituals in addition to this dance,and there are a number of related classics,such as Benjiao Pinghe Weimeng Jing,which contains a total of 58 scriptures,including instructions on how to perform the rituals.The full text is in handwritten form,totalling 1,866 pages,of which chapter 32 is dedicated to this masked dance.5)From the perspective of the types of animal figures found in the masked of the Baima Tibetan Mask Dance,and by using the material in a related 1992 thesis as a reference,a comparison can be made between the 28 figures found in the version of the martyred woman with the head of a beast.In total,18 animal-headed figures and nine human-headed figures appear in the version of martyred woman.These are the dragon,the snake,the red-billed crow,the lion,the warrior,the wolf,the tiger,the sacred bird Qiong,Capricorn,the wild yak,the yellow sheep,the bear,the yellow cow,the owl,the eagle,the harpy falcon,the snow leopard and the wild boar.Through this one case alone,we find that there are three more types of animal heads in the 28 images of the animal-headed martyred woman,as compared to the animal-headed of the Baima Tibetan Mask Dance,and these three are the Wolf Head,Water Beast Head and Wild Boar Head.In response to this situation,the author conducted a survey of the Baima Tibetan villages not covered by this source,and found that many of the village masks included water beast head masks and wild boar head masks.In other words,by taking the 28 types of the version of the martyred woman as a reference,we find that the wolf-headed mask is missing from the Baima Tibetan Mask Dance,and in comparison with the types of animal heads in the Baima Tibetan Mask Dance,there is one more example of wolf-headed mask in the 28 types of the version of the martyred woman.6)From the point of view of the individual characteristics of the masks used in this dance,we find that they are similar to those animal-head masks found on bronzes excavated at Sanxingdui archeological site in Guanghan county,Sichuan,where each mask contains elements of at least two or more different kinds of animals.This type of mask with the head of an animal and body of a human is described as“neither fish nor fowl”.7)From the point of view of the single mask embodying multiple animal elements,there is not only physical evidence of this in the form of mask dance masks from the Baima Tibetan villages,but also very detailed classical evidence.In addition to the physical evidence,the classical basis consists of two main aspects:on the one hand,the phenomenon emphasizes that the deities represented by the animal-headed masks are actually incarnations of the first female ancestor,Chikang Jigme,a symbol of great wisdom and love,and that the“neither fish nor fowl”phenomenon of the animal-headed person actually symbolizes the idea of non-killing and non-nurturing.On the other hand,there are also times when these majestic deities play the role of door-gods,and the animal heads of the majestic deities who play the role of door-gods are pluralistic in character,with a total of eleven types of animal heads,each implying two different animal elements.8)From the view of natural geography and related archaeologicalartifacts,most of the bronze masks excavated from the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan,Sichuan,which is connected to the Baima Tibetan region by mountains and water,also used different animal elements.Here,for example,the largest of the bronze animal-headed masks contains elements of pigs and cows,in addition to human and bird elements.For example,the ears of the mask open to the left and right to symbolize the pig's ears,and the eyes of the mask protrude outwards to symbolize the eyes of the bull.All in all,the Baima Tibetan Masked Dance is not only a folkloric form of the dance of Benjiao Heping Weimeng Jing,but at the same time,the bronze animal-headed masks of the excavated artifacts from the Sanxingdui in Guanghan prove that this cultural phenomenon existed in the southeastern borderlands of the Tibetan plateau for at least 3,000 years.