New record set by local Tibetan dancers

A large-scale folk dance performed by 1,000 dancers at the Shanghai Stadium in Shigatse city of the Tibet autonomous region on Sunday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A large-scale intangible culture heritage dance performed by local Tibetans in Shigatse city of the Tibet autonomous region, has been recognized by the World Record Certification Agency as a new record for "the largest-scale performance of Shigatse intangible folk dance".

The large-scale folk dance was performed by 1,000 dancers at the Shanghai Stadium on Sunday.

The challenge rules for the world record include all challengers in a single venue perform the Shigatse intangible cultural heritage folk dance at the same time, the total number of dancers shall not be less than 1,000, individuals who do not participate or repeated participants during the challenge period will not be counted as valid participants, and the performing time should not be less than 15 minutes.

Dressed in colorful Tibetan costumes, 1,000 dancers adopted three kinds of local intangible culture dancing resources of Shigatse into the performance, which are the Semadro, Dingri Loshed and Lhaze Doshed dances.

A large-scale folk dance performed by 1,000 dancers at the Shanghai Stadium in Shigatse city of the Tibet autonomous region on Sunday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Semadro dance is a folk waist drum dance, which is performed by a leading dancer and drummers hitting drums. In this performance, 248 Semadro dancers performed different drumming rhythms together.

When the Dingri Loshed performers hit the stage, 188 men played and sang three-stringed guitars and 188 women danced arm to arm, with graceful and dignified dancing steps. The dance is popular in places of Dingri county, which is near to the world's highest mountain Qomolangma, or Mount Everest as it is known in the West.

Widely practiced in the region's Lhaze county, the Lhaze Doshed is performed by 188 men and 188 women with each dancer holding a six-stringed guitar in their hands during the large-scale performance.

The 1,000 performers were rural residents from the Samdrubtse district, the countries of Dingri and Lhaze of region's Shigatse city.

A large-scale folk dance performed by 1,000 dancers at the Shanghai Stadium in Shigatse city of the Tibet autonomous region on Sunday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shigatse is enriched with intangible culture resources, it has 238 items of various intangible culture heritages and 389 legal cultural inheritors, according to official statistics.

Liu Yizhe, an accredited certifier of the World Record Certification Agency, said when she shuttled among these dancing crowds, she felt very shocked because she could personally feel the unique charm of ethnic culture.

"Seeing the traditional cultural performances and costumes of intangible cultural heritage makes me feel very happy," said Liu.