THE DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL TRADITION: TRIMMING CALVES' AND TAILS' HAIR (MAY 31, 2025), SHA RGYA COMMUNITY, MGO MANG (GUOMAYING) TOWNSHIP, MANG RDZONG (GUINAN) COUNTY, MSTHO LHO (HAINAN) TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURE, MSTHO SNGON (QINGHAI) PROVINCE, PR CHINA

THE DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL TRADITION: TRIMMING CALVES' AND TAILS' HAIR (MAY 31, 2025), SHA RGYA COMMUNITY, MGO MANG (GUOMAYING) TOWNSHIP, MANG RDZONG (GUINAN) COUNTY, MSTHO LHO (HAINAN) TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURE, MSTHO SNGON (QINGHAI) PROVINCE, PR CHINA by Gser mo mtho གསེར་མོ་མཚོ། (赛毛措 Saimaocuo) INTRODUCTION I used an iPhone 12 to record my maternal aunt (Btsun mo, b. 1976) trimming calves’ tail hair on Sunday, May 31, 2025, during the Ba ma ba gzhi ‘Dragon Boat Festival’. Almost every year around the Dragon Boat Festival, we follow this tradition. We believe this simple act blesses the calves with longer, healthier lives. Right after we finished milking at around 9 a.m., we began trimming the calves’ tail hair. My aunt carefully trimmed the calves’ tails at her home, and then I asked her to come help me do the same for the calves at my place. My mom (Rgya kho, b. 1964) was not well. She was unable to do physical work. Even just taking a short walk outside left her dizzy and feeling unwell, which is why I turned to my aunt for help. Ever since I was little, my grandmother (Dakar mo rgyal, b 1937) told me that on Dragon Boat Festival, every blade of grass on the grassland becomes a medicinal herb, and all the water turns to poison. We don’t fetch water on this day, so we never waste a single drop this day. When I was five and out herding sheep with the family, we didn’t have chives to eat during this festival. Instead, my grandmother would pluck a random stalk of grass from the grassland, hand it to me, and tell me to chew it. It’s an old belief. That’s why, every Dragon Boat Festival, before we eat breakfast, we chew on a blade of grass. In 2025, every household had chives, and we made delicious fried Chinese chive dumplings. My family also did this. Unfortunately, in 2025, I was so swamped with herding and milking yaks I didn’t get a chance to record this on my phone. TIBETAN TERMS btsun mo བཙུན་མོ། dkar mo rgyal དཀར་མོ་རྒྱལ། gser mo mtho གསེར་མོ་མཚོ། mang zdong མང་རྫོང་། mgo mang མགོ་མང་། mstho lho མཚོ་ལྷོ། mstho snon མཚོ་སྔོན། rgya kho རྒྱ་ཁོ། sha rgya ཤ་རྒྱ། CHINESE TERMS Guinan 贵南 Guoma Ying 过马营 Hainan 海南 Qinghai 青海 DRUG PA'I MCHOD PA by Gser mo mtho གསེར་མོ་མཚོ། (赛毛措 Saimaocuo) On Sunday, June 16, 2025, I recorded the religious ceremony, Drug pa'i mchod pa, in my home community, Sha rgya, Mgo mang (Guomaying) Township, Mang rdzong (Guinan) County, Mstho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mstho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China. On this day, people in my hometown invite around 35 monks to come chant prayers for us. We’ve kept this religious tradition and its ceremonies alive since the time of my maternal great-grandmother (Dpal mo rgyal, 1917-1999). My mom told me that back in my great-grandmother’s day, these ceremonies were far grander than they are now. This time, we held the ceremony in our winter pasture. We’ve been hosting it here for seven years. After the government restricted us from moving to our summer pasture, we’ve held the ceremony in the winter pasture. On that day, my sister (Khae u mo mtsho, b. 2006) and I went to the ceremony in my uncle’s car. It was only a five-minute drive from our home. In this ceremony, every family has duties to fulfill. Each household must complete 100 circumambulations, light 100 butter lamps, perform 100 prostrations, and offer 100 bowls of water. My sister and I also participated that day and did our part to finish these tasks. When I was a child, our community’s religious ceremony lasted four days and was held at the summer pasture. We only invited five or six monks to chant for us at that time. Everyone in the community wore their finest clothes, most notably their traditional Tibetan robes, to attend. The whole family made time for it, no matter how busy they were. Everyone also wore beautiful ornaments. Plenty of food was prepared and everyone was thrilled to participate. Things have changed. The ceremony lasted one day in 2025 and, instead of a small group of monks, the community invited 35 to chant. Fewer people participated, and only a few wore traditional Tibetan robes, especially among the younger generation. TIBETAN TERMS dpal mo rgyal དཔལ་མོ་རྒྱལ། drug pa'i mchod pa དྲུག་པའི་མཆོད་པ། khae u mo mtsho ཀླུ་མོ་མཚོ། gser mo mtho གསེར་མོ་མཚོ། mang zdong མང་རྫོང་། mgo mang མགོ་མང་། mstho lho མཚོ་ལྷོ། mstho snon མཚོ་སྔོན། sha rgya ཤ་རྒྱ། CHINESE TERMS Guinan 贵南 Guoma Ying 过马营 Hainan 海南 Qinghai 青海 TIBETAN SHEEP INTESTINE SAUSAGE by Gser mo mtho གསེར་མོ་མཚོ། (赛毛措 Saimaocuo) On the afternoon of Friday, June 20, 2025, I documented my uncle (Fu Qiang, b. 1972) slaughtering a sheep for our household, while my maternal aunt (Btsun mo b. 1976) joined the family in making mutton intestine sausages in my home Sha rgya Community, Mgo mang (Guomaying) Township, Mang rdzong (Guinan) County, Mstho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mstho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China. My mother had been ill for several months, with no noticeable improvement in her condition. Even though our family already had meat on hand, we chose to slaughter a sheep. We believed mutton was more helpful for her recovery than beef, which is why we made mutton sausages. I made this film because I did not know how to make mutton intestine sausages. I wanted to learn how and preserve a record of this tradition for the next generation, so they might find it engaging and learn from this piece of our family’s life. Sharing is a cherished tradition locally. When a household slaughters a sheep or yak, the meat is divided and given to neighboring families. On this day, after my family slaughtered a sheep, we shared the meat with our neighbors. TIBETAN TERMS ba ma ba gzhi བ་མ་བ་གཞི། btsun mo བཙུན་མོ། gser mo mtho གསེར་མོ་མཚོ། mang zdong མང་རྫོང་། mgo mang མགོ་མང་། mstho lho མཚོ་ལྷོ། mstho snon མཚོ་སྔོན། sha rgya ཤ་རྒྱ། CHINESE TERMS Fu Qiang 富强 Guinan 贵南 Guoma Ying 过马营 Hainan 海南 Qinghai 青海