Laru/ klu rol: Summer Qinghai Tibetan Ritual (1996)

See: Dpal ldan bkra shis and Kevin Stuart. 1998. ’Perilous Novelties’: The A mdo Tibetan Klu rol Festival in Gling rgyal Village. ANTHROPOS 93: 31-53. for a description of this ritual. Gling rgyal Tibetan Village, Rma lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China is the site of a summer festival known as klu rol (water deities entertainment). The purpose of the festival is to please mountain deities through the village’s two resident, male trance mediums. The mountain deities are beseeched to protect the village’s crops and livestock and exorcize evils from the villagers through villagers’ dances and sacrificial offerings. Filmed in 1996 by Zhu Yongzhong, this is the oldest reasonably complete film of the ritual we are aware of. It is particularly valuable in recording the ritual before the arrival of tourists in large numbers.