Porong Music
Porong
Participants: Ken Bauer (Oxford University), Hildegard Diemberger (Cambridge University), Monika Kriechbaum (Centre for Environmental Studies and Nature Conservation [BOKU], Vienna), Charles Ramble (Oxford University), Jill Sudbury (Oxford University), Kuthok Zla ba (Porong)
Porong is a large and mostly nomadic region in southwestern Tibet. The ethno-linguistic region of "Greater Porong" corresponds to a pre-1959 principality, as well as a contemporary cultural region to which a wide range of Tibetans consider themselves belonging. It currently belongs to a number of Chinese administrative units centered on Zhabs ka township (xiang) in Shigatse Prefecture, Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Since the 1990s, a team of scholars have been working with Tibetan colleagues to document the environment and culture of the Porong region of southwest Tibet. The Porong Project is an interdisciplinary and diachronic study of rangeland resources and practices in the pastoral community of Porong. The project examines environment-human interactions by focusing on the rangeland management practices of local pastoralists, as well as collecting demographic and ethnographic data. In addition, cultural traditions are being documented as well, including ritual cycles of music. Team members are documenting other cultural traditions in the area, including musical and dance traditions. The project aims to integrate disciplinary studies in Tibetology using multiple media.
The current focus is on a single township, Zhabs ka, and its five chief human settlements. The old capital of Greater Porong – a great nomadic tent from which the local ruler, called the rje dpon, administrated this territory – was called sbra chen, and is a natural village within Zhabs ka township.
To date, the research has been done chiefly by Charles Ramble, Hildegaard Diemberger and Monika Kriechbaum. The team has relied on Porong native Kuthok Zla ba locally and Tibetan researchers from the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences (TASS). Ken Bauer is now spearheading the organization of this data and its launching as a web site. Jill Sudbury is studying the revival of cultural traditions in Porong and is helping the project create multi-media CD-ROMs of ritual dances.
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