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Endangered Oral Tradition in Zanskar Valley

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Endangered Oral Tradition in Zanskar Valley Stanzin Dazang Namgail ENDANGERED ORAL TRADITION IN ZANSKAR VALLEY MA Thesis in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Central European University Budapest May 2019 CEU eTD Collection ENDANGERED ORAL TRADITION IN ZANSKAR VALLEY by Stanzin Dazang Namgail (India) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2019 ENDANGERED ORAL TRADITION IN ZANSKAR VALLEY by Stanzin Dazang Namgail (India) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader Budapest May 2019 CEU eTD Collection ENDANGERED ORAL TRADITION IN ZANSKAR VALLEY by Stanzin Dazang Namgail (India) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor Budapest May 2019 CEU eTD Collection I, the undersigned, Stanzin Dazang Namgail, candidate for the MA degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 27th May 2019 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract The present thesis aims to document the endangered oral tradition of Zanskar valley in the Indian Himalayan Region. Zanskar due to its geographical location remained isolated and hard to access in the past. Moreover, because of its strategic location close to border with Pakistan and China, Zanskar was declared a restricted area and was reopened to foreigners only in 1974. During my research, I recorded various songs, tales, riddles and oral history interviews in Zanskar, which are deposited in the Open Society Archive (OSA), Budapest. It will be openly accessible for both researchers and Zanskari people interested rediscovering their cultural and historical identity. In the past few years, oral tradition has suffered great losses and the people of Ladakh/Zanskar have included themselves in the fold of unchecked globalization. Modernization, new lifestyles, practices and social mores in the recent decades is rapidly changing the traditional culture, including oral tradition. With a road being constructed to connect the valley with the Indian road system, the number of visitors will increase exponentially, causing drastic changes in the region’s traditional lifestyles. There have been a few attempts to document the rich cultural tradition by some researchers on Ladakh: A.H Franke and Tashi Rabgias can be cited as an example- still the need to document the tradition remains overarching. Oral tradition in Zanskar valley used to play a vital role and, in some aspect, it still continues to do so (like the wedding songs), though its importance is gradually diminishing. CEU eTD Collection The primary objective of the thesis is to involve local experts, to cooperate with the local community and raise awareness about the cultural importance of oral tradition among Zanskari people through the cooperation with the educational activities of the NGO Csoma’s Room i Foundation. It may involve youth collecting text and the collected material in the future will be deposited in the database in OSA. CEU eTD Collection ii Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the help of number of people I met throughout the time I spent working on this thesis. It is my great honor to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to them. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Eszter Spat for her generous support, motivation, enthusiasm and immense knowledge. I would have been lost without her constant assistance and valuable comments. I would also like to thank my classmates who help me shaping my ideas with their valuable comments during the two-year period of my study in Central European University. I also want to express my gratitude to my informants for sharing their valuable knowledge and experiences. Last but not the least I would like to express my thanks to my family in Ladakh and Debrecen for their continuous support and prayer. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. iii Table of contents ....................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures, Tables or Illustrations ..................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Description of Zanskar ..................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Geography ................................................................................................................. 2 1.1.2 History....................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Zanskar Today ................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 State of Research.............................................................................................................. 7 1.4 Actors/organization active in trying to preserve Intangible Cultural Heritage in the region .............................................................................................................................................. 10 1.4.1 LAMO, Ladakh Art and Media Organization......................................................... 10 1.4.2 Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation ............................................................... 11 1.4.3 Reach Ladakh Bulletin ............................................................................................ 12 1.4.4 Ladakh Buddhist Association ................................................................................. 12 1.5 Novelty of Research ....................................................................................................... 13 1.6 Field Research in Zanskar .............................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2: Literacy and Orality in Traditional Zanskar........................................................... 19 CEU eTD Collection 2.1 Literacy in Traditional Zanskar valley ........................................................................... 19 2.2 Oral Tradition................................................................................................................. 24 2.3 Songs .......................................................................................................................... 29 2.3.1 Gung-glu or Congregational songs: ........................................................................ 30 2.3.2 Bakston-glu or marriage songs: .............................................................................. 30 iv 2.3.3 Chos-Glu or religious songs: .................................................................................. 30 2.3.4 Las-glu or work songs:............................................................................................ 31 2.3.5 Chang-glu or Drinking/ Beer song:......................................................................... 32 2.4 Tales or Brungs .............................................................................................................. 33 2.5 Riddles or Tsot-tsot ........................................................................................................ 34 Chapter 3: Transformation of Socio-economic Factors in Zanskar and its impact on Oral Tradition ................................................................................................................................... 35 3.1 Social and Economic Changes in Zanskar Valley in the Last Decades ......................... 35 3.1.1 Economic and Social Changes ...................................................................................
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