An Introduction to Tibetan Sa bstod Speeches in A mdo

Abstract

The sa bstod is a genre of Tibetan oratory praising famous landmarks in a given area including monasteries, holy mountains, and streams. Such speeches are intimately tied up with manipulating precarious economies of fortune. As an introductory study of the genre, this article begins with an examination of Tibetan economies of fortune. Next, it examines sa bstod within a continuum of similar genres that discuss place and the environment. Following this, the performance contexts, dynamics, and register of the sa bstod genre are described. The article concludes by showing how sa bstod shed light on these economies of fortune, and how lay Tibetan’s interact with the phenomenological world in relation to folkloric theories of place and place names, as well as the Tibetan folk religious concept of rten ‘brel.

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