Genka: A Long-Lost Instrument Surfaces Again in Tibet
While tuning the string instrument held in his hands, Mr. Kharpa Tashi Tsering, who is almost eighty-five years old, remarked, "I can't let this instrument die in my hands." His eyes revealed a complicated mixture of hope and worry. At this moment, he holds the status of a national-level inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage arts of Gar and Toeshey Nangma, and is also widely recognized as a master of Tibetan folk performing arts.
The Genka, the instrument he plays, is a traditional Tibetan instrument that had been lost for nearly forty years. Its origins are far more complex than those of the local Dranyen, as it is an ancient musical instrument from Persia. In past generations, traditional artists believed—owing to geographical isolation—that the Genka reached Tibet from Kashmir at about the same time as the court music Gar (གར།). This theory, however, remains too vague.
Based on our investigation, it appears that the Genka may trace its roots to the Kamancheh, a traditional instrument from Persia. This instrument can be found in many places, including Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Iran and Azerbaijan also jointly submitted the instrument’s craftsmanship and performance art for recognition on UNESCO's "Intangible Cultural Heritage" list. The kamancheh is characterized by a thin neck and a round, wooden body shaped like a bowl, usually covered with a membrane made from lamb, goat, or fish skin.
Despite being situated on the high inland plateau, Tibet features a broad range of musical instruments and performance traditions. The kamancheh, introduced to Tibet, traditionally uses three strings, while modern modified versions have four. During play, the instrument is held up by a wooden spike that protrudes from its base, and the bridge rests on the membrane.
A representative example is the Genka, one of numerous foreign instruments that were introduced to Tibet through trade routes spanning the Asian continent, alongside locally developed traditional instruments. After arriving in Tibet, it was mainly used for playing court music (Gar). Its performance and transmission have been managed by the Potala Palace court music and dance troupe.
Beyond the Genka already noted, the yangqin and jinghu likewise exemplify foreign instruments that reached Tibet at various times. The yangqin initially came to China’s southeastern coast by way of the Maritime Silk Road, then spread widely among Han Chinese populations. Meanwhile, the Genka’s shape closely follows that of the kamancheh, and its name bears a strong resemblance as well: kamancheh / Genka (འགན་ཆག).
During the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, the jinghu, named for its principal function of accompanying Peking Opera, was developed from the huqin. In the late 18th century, the noted Tibetan artist Dorin Tendzin Bumcho practiced both instruments while living in Beijing. The two were subsequently adopted as accompaniment instruments in the traditional Tibetan song-and-dance art Toeshey Nangma (སྟོད་གཞས་ནང་མ།).
Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple in Tibet once housed dozens of ancient instruments that have survived to this day. Local legends claim that Princess Wencheng brought these instruments from Chang’an to Tibet in the 7th century AD. Preserved for thousands of years, such instruments serve as extremely precious physical evidence for researching the history of ethnic music.
Scholarly research indicates that these instruments have diverse origins: some may have been introduced from Han Chinese areas during or after the 7th century AD, others are ancient instruments that came into Tibet from western and southern directions at various historical times, and still others are indigenous to Tibet. Their presence clearly reflects the exchange and integration, within Tibet, of musical traditions from East Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, and South Asia.
During the traditional "Ser Dreng" (སེར་སྦྲེང་།) ceremony, held on the 30th day of the second month of the Tibetan calendar, monks dressed in ceremonial attire would march through Lhasa, bearing sacred statues, ritual objects, offerings, and musical instruments preserved in the Jokhang Temple for public viewing. Regrettably, after their introduction to Tibet, these instruments never evolved into a formal performance tradition; rather, they were stored away as treasures in monastery repositories.
Among those items was a collection of ancient instruments, though the monks carrying them had no idea how to play them. In that era, the elderly Mr. Tashi Tsering served as a dance attendant in the court dance troupe of the Potala Palace. He and his fellow dance attendants played a key role in nearly every Serdreng procession during the 1950s. As he remembered, "During the Serdreng, we performed Gar in front of the Potala Palace.
Those instruments, swept away by the river of history, may have left a lingering worry in the elderly Mr. Tashi Tsering. Over nearly sixty years, he diligently studied the instrumental music of Tibet, ultimately becoming a renowned master in that field. He once recalled monks from the Jokhang Temple entering the venue with ancient instruments; no one there knew their names, and the monks themselves had no idea how to play them. "They just plucked the strings randomly, pretending to play...
Reviving the Genka: Czechoslovak military filmmakers Vladimir Sis and Josef Vaniš stayed in Tibet for ten months, working with August First Film Studio (the People's Liberation Army Film Studio) to produce a documentary. The earliest known video footage of the Genka dates to 1954, from that period. The two also recorded many musical works during their time there, which were later assembled into an album and issued in Czechoslovakia.
Under the leadership of China’s music and cultural management authorities, three conferences themed “Musical Instrument Reform” were held in 1954, 1959, and 1961. These gatherings brought together music research institutions, instrument manufacturing bodies, orchestras, and folk artists. Also among the performances was a duet for the Genka and the Dranyen, played by Dawa Dhondup, a member of the Potala Palace court music and dance troupe.
The Genka was the ethnic minority instrument discussed most frequently during the "Three Conferences." At these conferences, participants introduced the instrument, identified its craftsmanship flaws, and then considered how to modify it. Among the many instrument reform efforts considered there, reform of ethnic minority musical instruments is a category that deserves special attention. As a result of these discussions, the Genka's materials and structure were altered for its reform.
In 1981, the revival of the Gar art was initiated by Tashi Tsering and other ex-members of the Potala Palace dance troupe, at the invitation of the Tibet Autonomous Region Mass Art Center. Earlier, from the mid-to-late 1960s through the 1970s, the adapted Genka took the place of the violin within leading official Tibetan music ensembles. Additionally, a "crescent-shaped base" had been incorporated to improve its suitability across a range of performance contexts.
After Gar was revived and secured recognition as a national-level intangible cultural heritage, many artists turned their attention to preserving its dance and vocal forms. The Genka, in the meantime, was gradually confined to archives and museum display cases. Earlier, however, Tashi Tsering and Dawa Dhondup had standardized the Genka's tuning method to match its modified design, making it more appropriate for the performance style of Tibetan classical music.
In Tibet's major professional art troupes, performers who could fully master the Genka were growing scarcer, which once again placed Genka art at a critical juncture for its transmission. Meanwhile, Tashi Tsering, having been designated an intangible cultural heritage inheritor of both Gar and Dranyen, kept himself occupied with teaching these traditions. Beginning in 2010, after he had systematically organized Dranyen, Toeshey Nangma, and Gar, Tashi Tsering handed over the duty of carrying them forward to the younger generation of performers and professional bodies.
After shifting his focus to the study of Genka art, Tashi Tsering and his student Lhob (stage name "Galawangbu") began its revival in 2023. At the 2024 Tibetan New Year Gala, Galawangbu and his students performed this treasured song-and-dance art on stage, formally playing the Genka. It was the first time the instrument, lost for nearly forty years, had been presented on a public stage. The artists' firm conviction.