Guozhuang Dance (Diqing Guozhuang)

The guozhuang is called "guozhuo" in Tibetan, meaning "circle dance," an ancient folk song-and-dance form of the Tibetan people. The Diqing guozhuang was inscribed under the name of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan, with representative transmission areas including Jiantang and Xiaozhongdian towns in Shangri-La and Benzilan town in Deqin. In 2006 the guozhuang—including the Diqing, Qamdo and Yushu traditions—entered the first national ICH list, item Ⅲ-20, under traditional dance.

Whenever a great festival, wedding, the welcome or farewell of guests, or the harvest season comes round, Tibetans gather to dance the guozhuang. Men, women, old and young form a circle, hand in hand and arm linked, and follow a lead singer who sets the tune, stamping and singing with vigorous, upright movement that moves between fiery fast passages and lyrical slow ones, at times swelling into gatherings of a thousand or ten thousand dancers.

The guozhuang carries the social courtesy, emotional expression and collective memory of the Tibetan people, an important vessel for studying Tibetan folk dance, music and festival custom, and one of the most compelling cultural emblems of Diqing's heritage-and-tourism fusion.

The dance is often seen at festival times in Dukezong Ancient Town square and the towns of Jiantang and Xiaozhongdian in Shangri-La.