Photo Essay: Tibetan Women's Ornaments in Rgyab Lung (Jialong) Village, Rta nag ma (Heimahe) Township, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, PR China

In this paper, I focus on a Tibetan herding family's generational division and use of ornaments, particularly coral necklaces, in Rgyab lung (Jialong) Village, Rta nag ma (Heimahe) Township Town, Gser chen (Gonghe) County, Mtsho lho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon (Qinghai) Province, China. Rta nag ma Township consists of four pastoral communities: Rgyab lung (Jialong), Bum pa (Wenba), Brag mchog (Zhihuqu), and Ra 'khyog (Ranhuqu). I describe personal adornments in my family and the local community (mostly my relatives). I give information about the people mentioned in this text, a glossary of non-English terms relating to adornments, and accounts from my maternal grandmother and mother.

Grandmother told me that in about 2003 she spent approximately 5,000 RMB on coral necklaces for one of her daughters before she married. In 2019, one of my uncles paid around 12,000 RMB for three coral necklaces for his son's bride. Mother and my family's neighbor women agree that, while genuine coral is valuable, fashionable, and protects from illness, there are few occasions to wear coral. Locally, both women and men only participate in two big festivals - Lo sar and the fifth lunisolar month's fifteenth day. Women often cannot attend because they are busy or rules limit festival participation, e.g., it is taboo to participate in many social events after a relative's death for specified lengths of time.

Local women think just one or two coral necklaces are fine and that imitation coral necklaces are better because they are stylish, attractive, and cheap. These ongoing changes indicate that social value and practices regarding coral are increasingly fluid, especially with widespread access to social media that impacts what is considered trendy and the availability of low-priced, imitation products that closely resemble authentic coral.