Genka 根卡 (spike fiddle) from Lhasa 城关区, Tibet 西藏自治区

A 6-minute video introducing the genka (根卡), also called genqia (根恰), a rare variety of traditional spike fiddle similar to the Persian kamancheh, which was formerly used to play Tibetan gar (གར་; Chinese: ga'er, 嘎尔 or ka'er, 卡尔) court music. It was, very unfortunately, filmed in "vertical video" format. In Tibetan, this instrument is called ghan-chag (འགན་ཆག་), ga-ndza, or kunjka; the first of these names may be related to the Uyghur ghëjek (غېجەك) or the Persian ghaychak (قیچک). The master musician featured in this video is Mr. Kharpa Tashi Tsering (Chinese: Ka'erba Zhaxi Ciren, 卡尔巴·扎西次仁; born 1938, 1939, or 1940 in Naiqung 乃琼, Dêlung 堆龙, a western suburban district of Lhasa 城关, Tibet 西藏自治区), who holds the statuses of Autonomous Region-Level Representative Inheritor/Transmitter of the Intangible Cultural Heritage items of Lhasa Toeshey (拉萨堆谐) and Lhasa dramyin (拉萨扎念); and National-Level Representative Inheritor/Transmitter of the Intangible Cultural Heritage item of gar (གར་; Chinese: ga'er, 嘎尔) court music. At the age of 8, 9, or 10, Kharpa Tashi Tsering joined the 20-member Potala Palace Gar Song and Dance Ensemble (布达拉宫宫廷嘎尔歌舞队), learning gar court music and dance. From 1983 to 1998, he taught gar music and dance at the Arts College of Tibet University (西藏大学艺术学院). As a master performer and teacher, he is proficient in three types of traditional music and dance: gar (嘎尔), Toeshey (堆谐), and Nangma (囊玛). Although most of the gar performers of his generation have already passed away, the Lhasa Toeshey Heritage Troupe (拉萨堆谐传承队), which he established in 2010, and which performs Nangma, Toeshey, and other Tibetan folk genres, continues under the direction of his successors, Nyima Tsangchu (尼玛仓曲) and Wangchen (旺钦). With another of his students, Mr. Norbu (Chinese: Luobu, 罗布), whose stage name is Garab Wangpo (Chinese: Gala Wangbu, 嘎拉旺布), Kharpa Tashi Tsering began an initiative to revive the genka beginning in 2023. Prior to this, this instrument had been in disuse for nearly 40 years. Although various smaller and larger sizes of modernized genka had been developed in Tibet between 1958 and 1965, for use in ensembles such as the Lhasa-based Tibet Song and Dance Troupe (Chinese: Xizang Gewutuan, 西藏歌舞团), they fell out of use after the early 1980s. Gar and garlu (Tibetan: གར་གླུ་; Chinese: ga'erlu, 嘎尔鲁; court music and dance) originated in the early 17th century when the rulers of the Tsangpa Dynasty, based in Shigatse, south-central Tibet, gathered performers from Ngari, Baltistan, and Ladakh (the latter two areas being under significant Mughal influence). When the Fifth Dalai Lama conquered the Tsangpa Dynasty in 1642 he took the gar musicians back to his Potala Palace in Lhasa, located 250 km northeast of Shigatse, and, following the Tibet-Ladakh-Mughal war of 1679-1684, recruited even more performers and repertoire from Ngari and Ladakh. In the autumn of 1688, these genres' musical scores and lyrics were compiled into a classic collection entitled "Shang Xin Yue'er Mu Zhi Xiyan Zhi Diaogou"《赏心悦耳目之喜宴之钓钩》. In 2008 gar was included in the Second Batch of China's National-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage List (第二批国家级非物质文化遗产名录) by China's Ministry of Culture (中华人民共和国文化部, known since March 2018 as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 中华人民共和国文化和旅游部). The sub-agencies responsible for maintaining these lists, both under the aegis of the aforementioned ministry, are the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage (文化部非物质文化遗产司) and the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center (中国非物质文化遗产保护中心, CICHPC). Probably filmed in Tibet, c. 2023-2024, and probably released in 2024. Produced by Shongling Phun for CHARU (Chinese: 迦入; Tibetan: ཆ་རུ་), a cultural platform and brand dedicated to Himalayan and Tibetan arts. More information: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/U48qbWBlOQ... https://weibo.com/5657431538/O6ke7EvNE https://gandhanra.art/blogs/himalayan... https://www.tibetcul.com/people/mrzf/... https://www.xzxw.com/fy/2017-01/20/co... https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%A0%B... https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%A5%B... https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%98%8... https://web.archive.org/web/202609040... https://web.archive.org/web/202512101... https://www.tibet.org.tw/index.php/ch... https://www.xzxw.com/tpsp/2019-07/11/... https://www.bilibili.com/video/av2179... https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ML4...