Swing it and smash them - The Tibetan Urdah (throwing stone rope)

Swing it and smash them - The Tibetan Urdah (throwing stone rope)

Photographed by Ronald Patrick
1996-1999
Photographed by Youyuan Shenya
There is a Tibetan riddle that goes: "Curling like a poisonous snake, soaring like a divine dragon, wrathful like a heavenly stone falling, its sound tearing through the sky." It describes the ancient Tibetan pastoral tool "Urdah" (འུར་རྡོ), commonly transliterated as "Erdou" or "Guduo", which can be translated as "throwing stone rope" or "flying stone sling".
Tibetan traditional stone throwing rope
In Tibetan, the name "Urdah" is very vivid - "Ur" is an onomatopoeia describing the sound of swinging the Urdah, and "dah" means stone, so Urdah can be translated as "stone swing" directly. However, no one uses it like this in Chinese.

Traditional Tibetan stone throwing rope
Pitt Rivers Museum collection

With the sound of the "ur" ring, the cattle and sheep scatter. For a long time, the urdowa has been an essential tool for every Tibetan nomad. It is common to see Tibetan nomads wearing sheepskin robes, with sleeves hanging down to half arms, waving the urdowa gradually from their body to the sky between the grasslands and mountain valleys, then swinging it gracefully, throwing it in the distance clearing and bouncing back (nomads will avoid hitting the livestock directly). The startled animals immediately run in the opposite direction, correcting their path.

February 1980 cover of National Geographic

In earlier times, the Urdhva had been a mighty weapon in the hands of brave and skilled warriors who repelled enemy generals. In the ancient Tibetan epic of King Gesar, it is recorded that with the Urdhva known as "Bazhibzhang," Gesar defeated the King of Hor, Tomojeqin. There is also a mention of Gesar's warrior Damba using the Urdhva known as "Chatongma" to avenge his comrades by saying, "If I cannot avenge the evil enemy who dares to carry the heads of our soldiers, then our great King Gesar is not truly divine." Damba then launched a stone projectile that hit the enemy general Xianba's right arm, making a successful revenge.

King Gesar 1900-1950
Hahn Cultural Foundation collection
This military factor was also awakened in the Jiangzi Resistance War against the British in the early 20th century, when brave Tibetan people used the urdo to resist British firearms and defend their homeland. The story still inspires people today. "With soft and light sheep wool, woven into the urdo with nine eyes, fiercely smashing towards the British, let the folk song be sung, echoing in the Tibetan land.
In 1904, the British army forced the Tibetans to flee to the hillsides.
In fact, the history of the Tibetan use of urd was probably earlier than we imagine. An important clue comes from the famous Tibetan historical book "The Feast of the Wise", which records in ancient times: "During the reign of the fifth king Majia Kuje, weapons such as chains were produced. During the reign of the sixth king Zhou Zhou Mammoth, throwing stone ropes appeared." Additionally, there is also a mention of "being praised as the nine places of demons, occupying rocky forests, with people all having red faces eating meat, using demon bone and urdah" in the book.
"Witch in the Old Town"
Collection of the Pete Rivers Museum

Divination and Warding off Evil

In addition to its basic uses in military, hunting, and now pastoralism, with the progression of human civilization and a deeper awakening of thoughts, Wu Er Duo has also begun to assume new meanings that belong to it—divination and warding off evil are two new contents. Divination is an important folk custom in Tibetan society, and there are many ways of divination such as prayer bead divination, dream divination, dice divination, spirit possession divination, etc. Among them, the use of weapons for divination is another major characteristic, with the arrow divination of Gesar King being the most famous. Along with this, there is also the Wu Er Duo divination of Gesar King (the divination method of Urdah divination is detailed in the article "The Origin and Value of Tibetan Wu Er Duo").

Tenth Panchen Lama's Gift of a Thangka to a Friend
Image Source: internet
It seems that influenced by the witchcraft system at that time, the prayer flag has added a layer of being a medium connecting people with unknown things. This meaning is directly manifested in the later use of prayer flags as talismans for warding off evil and seeking blessings. To this day, many Tibetan families still hang prayer flags. In addition, in the analysis of the function of "Urduo" (stone-throwing rope) in Tibetan pastoral areas, it is also recorded: "Before the hailstorm arrives, Tibetan people... use a stone-throwing rope wrapped with a kind of 'rubbing rubbing' made of red glue mud, and throw it into the air to intercept the arrival of the 'hail messengers'."
A Tibetan shepherd girl holding a urdah.
Image Source: internet

The fastest of all rapid movements.

The awakening of humanistic consciousness has also led people to pay attention to the aesthetic value of Tibetan Urdah, as their weaving techniques and variety gradually mature and enrich. Generally speaking, the basic materials of Tibetan carpets are wool or yak wool, with a proverb stating: "Weaving with white sheep wool symbolizes the gathering of a thousand sheep, while weaving with black yak wool foretells endless galloping." Early on, Tibetan carpets were categorized according to their basic materials, such as coarse black yak wool carpets, white sheep wool carpets, coarse blue yak wool carpets from mountain goats, patterned carpets, gray and white line carpets, and long strip carpets from the Heikuo tribe. Later, based on special weaving methods, they were further divided into categories such as patterned nine-section, multi-eyed beads, nine buttons, six rings, sixteen strands, large flowers, small flowers, and nine-button spring eyes, among which the nine-button spring eyes are considered the most classic type.

Urdah
Image Source: internet
The Urdah is generally composed of a main rope, auxiliary rope, net bag, finger ring, and tail rope. In the epic of Gesar Khan, there is a vivid and popular verse that beautifully and detailedly describes the Urdah in the hands of King Gesar, the verse reads: "The Urdah in my hand is the reliance of all the gods, it is the swiftest of all things. It is made of the hair of the Mother of Emptiness, the mane of the snow lion, the whiskers of the red tiger, the wool of the wild yak, and the fur of the gray bear.... The main rope sways like a dragon's roar.... The auxiliary rope trembles and tears through the sky.... The Urdah (net bag) summons all wild beasts.... The black stone thrown from it is the soul stone of a thousand war gods".
The Shepherd Who Throws Urdah
Image Source: internet

The pincer attack of the times

Just like all traditional things, the traditional Tibetan sport of urdo is also facing challenges in the modern way of life and production tools. A 2014 article titled "A Survey and Analysis of the Current Situation of Traditional Tibetan Sport Urdo" pointed out that in just 8 villages in Ali region, "the situation of mastering the skill of making urdo is that, of the people over 50 years old in each village, 87% can weave urdo, and among those aged 20 to 50, about 31% can weave urdo. It can be seen that the number of young people mastering this skill is also decreasing rapidly".

Image Source: internet
In conclusion, in the face of the loss of practical value, the ancient Urdu rope has evolved into a form of decoration in the trend of history - Urdo-style phone pendants or clothing ornaments have appeared. Moreover, the swinging of the Urdo in the past has now been reinterpreted under the name of "sport", becoming a form of exercise. The process of it becoming a "traditional sports game" is also a vivid chapter in the development of human civilization.

This article is translated from Jiangxibairao's blog.

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