Tibetan Boots: No Left or Right, Only Wind and Rain
Image source: rugrabbit. The Qinghai Provincial Museum's collection contains Tang Dynasty Tibetan Style Leather Shoes, whereas the National Museum's collection includes Dengba boots. There are also a pair of antique Tibetan boots from the last century and a pair of children's felt-lined Tibetan boots dating to the early 20th century. An elderly herdsman wears Tibetan boots. Shoelaces and Love: a very romantic folk div
During the ceremony, the "main divination person" first collects several pairs of shoelaces, each belonging to a different man and woman, and keeps them concealed behind their back. Everyone is then asked to sing freely. While the music plays, the "main divination person" withdraws two laces from behind them and uses the lyrics of the current song to determine the romantic prospects of the man and woman connected by those laces. As an illustration, if the song includes the line: "Beloved, what do you need? Please tell me what you need," that content shapes the reading.
In Tibetan, the passage "（ ཆུང་འདྲིས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཅི་དགོས། ། འདི་དགོས་ང་ལ་གསུངས་དང་། ། ནམ་མཁའི་སྐར་མ་དགོས་ན། ། སྐས་འཇའ་བཙུགས་ནས་ལེན་འགྲོ། ། ）" conveys the sentiment, "Even if you need the stars in the sky, I will find a ladder to climb up." This expresses a profound and powerful affection, and it suggests that the couple are destined for a promising future together.
Sometimes the host plays tricks, mixing an elderly woman's shoelaces with those of young people. The Tibetan lyric 'I found a yogi from India, went to get a divination, he said the heart of the lover is like a tambourine, wavering' ( རྒྱ་གར་ཨ་ཙ་ར་ལ། ། མོ་ཞིག་བཏབ་ས་སོང་གི། ། ཆུང་འདྲིས་ཌ་མ་རུ་མགོ་ལ། ། སྙིང་གཏམ་མ་བཤད་གསུང་གྲགས། ། ) implies that the two are uncertain and perhaps incompatible. If a secretly enamored couple is paired up, young Tibetan couples often blush shyly in public.
In the game, shoelaces represent love, acting as the threads that tie together the fates of men and women. When a pairing is completed and the song is ambiguous, the audience frequently breaks into laughter. Tibetan women are depicted wearing traditional Tibetan boots. Image Source: internet. On the whole, Ge Bu is an entertaining and romantic divination game in Litang that brings excitement and humor to social gatherings.
Throughout the centuries, Tibetan footwear developed from a strictly utilitarian item into an object of artistic value, and this aesthetic dimension appeared at an early stage. If laces represent the connections of fate, then the shoes to which they are tied serve as sturdy backing that enables one to surmount every barrier and difficulty.
In the 1950s, a pair of leather boots recovered from Qinghai revealed that the plateau’s early inhabitants already possessed a fairly advanced level of shoemaking skill and design: the footwear was made of "thicker leather for the sole, thinner leather for the upper, with the sole and upper sewn together using bone and copper awls to drill holes and then sewing them with leather threads". At the front of the boot mouth, a piece of fur-trimmed leather decorated the boots, conveying an appreciation of beauty and aesthetic taste.
At Le Du, Qinghai, colorful pottery boots dating to the late Neolithic period were excavated. The literature likewise confirms this. In "A Procession of Concubines," a painting by Yan Liben of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Dongzan is depicted wearing a pair of "black dog-nosed boots" (as described by Mr.
In subsequent times, Tibetan officials wore Mongolian boots, and the Qing-era "Journey to Tibet" says that "from Da Jianlu to Tibet..." As for Songtsen Gampo, Gendun Qumpa—like Wang Yao—contended that he "wore a red silk head wrap, draped a half-moon cloak of five-colored brocade, and wore pointed leather boots.
In Tibetan, this footwear is called “Lham” (ལྷམ), while colloquial speech refers to it as “kangguo,” and the English word “boots” has also become common. A 19th-century Tibetan nobleman is depicted wearing such boots. According to one description, the boots were made of stitched leather, usually in vermilion, with thin soles and sock-shaped uppers that were sometimes also crafted from woolen cloth. Another account says moccasins were made from finely twisted horsehair, with some decorated using woven gold combined with woolen cloth, while boots were sewn with fragrant cowhide soles and adorned with inset sand-green leather, making them extremely magnificent.
By material, Tibetan boots come in leather and fur; by style and design, they are classified as Songba, Garuo, Jiaqin, among others. Songba, however, is the most distinctive. To quote: "The sole of the boot is made of twisted rope knotted with yak wool, and the more advanced ones are called 'Songba Tinima', with the sole made of cowhide. The boots are colorful and the colors are matched meticulously. Eight colors such as red, yellow, blue, green, etc. are embroidered on the boot tops to create beautiful patterns.
Cultural influences from different areas are similarly visible in footwear. In the Amdo region, for example, long boots of dark felt are popular for their refined look, typically embellished with dark red cloth around the vamp and collar, showcasing the elegance of the Amdo people. Herders wear hidden boots with leather soles. The embroidery on the boot upper is equally vivid, and the toe shapes include square, round, pointed, and hooked.
In pastoral regions, cowhide leather long boots have long been the standard footwear, valued for their durability and ability to withstand snow and frost, making them ideal for long journeys on horseback. Tibetans in areas such as Chamdo and western Sichuan frequently wear black thick-soled leather boots, which reflect the dignity of the Khampa people. These boots, paired with the people who wear them, stand firm against wind and rain, and are designed without distinction between left and right.
Tibetan boots are composed of shoe soles, boot shafts, and embroidery, so their manufacturing is correspondingly split into three steps. For the sole, either hemp or leather is used: hemp soles depend mainly on a specific wild grass, while leather soles were traditionally handmade by selecting a whole cowhide, tanning and dyeing it to soften it, and then cutting it into patterns. Today, leather is usually purchased from leather factories.
The construction of low-top canvas shoes (image source: 《Lham》) features a boot shaft generally composed of felt and cotton fabric. An opening is set at the back of the shaft to make the shoes easier to put on, and black, red, and green dominate the color scheme. In the manufacturing process, a white cotton layer is pasted over 3 to 4 layers of felt using special starch paste, after which a wooden mallet slowly hammers out a sunken pattern. As for the soles, thin ones typically require 3 to 4 cowhide layers, while thicker ones require 5 to 7.
Image source: 《Lham》 depicts the shaping of the Garuo Tibetan boots. The most artistic feature of the entire boot is the embroidery on its vamp and heel, which is executed in intricate and rich designs. For instance, auspicious motifs such as lotus flowers, peacocks, and peacock feathers may be incorporated. Women's boots frequently display more elaborate embroidery. In specific rituals or performances, actors might wear special footwear, including the "Dagaram" boots, which have three eyes on the vamp symbolizing the majestic gaze of the gods.
Typically, these boots are used for portraying royalty or kings. There is a specific high-end Tibetan boot called "Gahram". Another feature that sets Tibetan boots apart from modern shoes is that they don't come with a left-foot and right-foot distinction. Instead, the boots gradually adopt a left or right orientation from the uneven wear on their soles. This effect is especially obvious for someone who limps, since the sole on the side of the limp foot experiences more wear than the opposite side.
During the 11th century, the well-known Tibetan translator Chag Lotsawa Chejé Pel traveled to India. When asked by the locals where he came from, he replied in Sanskrit, "I come from Tibet," but his fluent answer raised suspicion. The traces left by hidden boots and the making of concealed boots (Image Source: internet) show that, over time, the left and right feet are naturally determined. In summary, while Tibetan boots do not distinguish left from right, they fearlessly face challenges and keep pressing forward.
In Zatang Temple, a magnificent 11th-century painting titled “Shakyamuni Preaching” shows the Tibetan artist thoughtfully placing boots on the barefoot Shakyamuni Buddha from India. Elsewhere, one of the locals noticed Chag Lotsawa’s feet and exclaimed, “He must be from Tibet—look, the tips are worn flat from years of wearing Tibetan boots.” Image source: internet (Tibetan-style high boots).
In these instances, Tibetan boots have pressed the imprints of history into emblems of communal identity, just as the Tibetan people have, over thousands of years, transformed rigid leather into gentle grasslands and woven beautiful narratives around them. Through these emblems, we can perceive the outer form, the physical substance, and the toil of this ancient nation as it made its way through time.
In Western art criticism, there is a well-known case of appreciation involving German philosopher Heidegger’s interpretation of Vincent van Gogh’s painting "The Shoes". He viewed the shoes as the arduous labor of the peasant woman, even as the person within them, and as existence itself. This way of feeling can be extended to the mural of Sakyamuni Preaching in Zha Tang Temple, which dates from the 11th century. As Heidegger put it: "From the black hole of wear and tear inside the shoes, there is a condensation of the hardships of labor footsteps.
These hard, heavy, worn-out peasant shoes are saturated with the uncomplaining anxiety over bread's reliability and the wordless joy of overcoming poverty. Within them echoes the earth's silent call, revealing its quiet gift to the ripe grain. They have amassed the toughness and sluggishness of footsteps across the vast, eternally monotonous fields in the piercing cold wind, hinting at the shudder of childbirth and the trembling of approaching death.
This nation's history is concealed within the stride of a pair of boots. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is Van Gogh's "Farming Shoes." "These tools belong to the earth, and they are preserved in the world of the peasant woman.