Tibetan Nomad Material Culture Documentation Project Collection
odd: label: Shared Stewardship of Collections
content: The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://doi.org/10.25573/data.21771155.
name: label: Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
place: label: Place
content: Tibet, Plateau of
label: Place
content: Qinghai (province)
label: Place
content: Gansu (province)
label: Place
content: Sichuan (province)
topic: label: Topic
content: Nomads
label: Topic
content: Material culture
label: Topic
content: foodways
label: Topic
content: Crafts
label: Topic
content: Domestic life
label: Topic
content: Religious life
label: Topic
content: Herding
label: Topic
content: Hand tools
label: Topic
content: Games
label: Topic
content: Clothing
label: Topic
content: Fieldwork
label: Topic
content: Weaving
label: Topic
content: Basket making
label: Topic
content: hide and skin processing
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Materials in the Tibetan Nomad Material Culture Documentation Project Collection were created in 2016 by local researchers, filmmakers, community members, and scholars Llamo Drolma, Nathaniel Sims, Puhua, rGyalthar,  Tsehua, and Wuqi. Their work was supported by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. After the fieldworkers completed their projects, their documentation, associated metadata, and trip reports were acquired by the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives in the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in 2017.
creator: label: Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Tibetan Nomad Material Culture Documentation Project Collection
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: The Nomad Material Culture Documentation Project holds documentation from five different culturally nomadic communities in Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan Provinces, China. Starting in 2016, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage contracted local researchers, filmmakers, community members, and scholars to document aspects of current nomadic life, including customs, tools, traditional knowledge, and ways of life. 

All materials have been shared with the originating communities.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4.4 Terabytes (4050 videos, 1301 photographs, born digital)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2016
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.TNP
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Terabytes
label: Type
content: Oral history
label: Type
content: Digital photographs
label: Type
content: Digital moving image formats
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The files in this collection are arranged in chronological order within four series, named for the four fieldworkers or fieldworker teams and containing their respective video and photographic documentation. The four series are as follows: (1) Lhamo Drolma, (2) Puhua, (3) rGyalthar and Nathaniel Sims, and (4) Wuqi.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The Tibetan Nomad Material Culture Documentation Collection was processed by Khamokyi and Cecilia Peterson in 2017-2018. Upon recieving the files in 2017, Khamokyi and Cecilia reviewed metadata provided by fieldworkers and made it consistent. Khamokyi, a native speaker of Amdo Tibetan, reviewed all video materials and added detail to existing descriptions. Descriptions for video materials in the Rma language relied on extensive written documentation in English and Chinese submitted with the materials by the creators, rGyalthar and Nathaniel Sims. Keywords in English, Tibetan, and Chinese were derived from existing metadata as well as Khamokyi's review of the materials. Metadata was then embedded into every file's IPTC fields using Adobe Bridge. Embedded metadata is primarily in English, with some Tibetan and Chinese. Due to the high volume of photographs, out-of-focus or mistaken shots were removed from the collection when good alternatives were available. Multiple, nearly identical shots were also reduced to the best examples. Files were then renamed and are now digitally preserved in the Smithsonian's digital asset management system.
bibliography: label: Bibliography
content: Curated materials from the Tibetan Nomad Material Culture Documentation Project can be viewed through Lag Zo: Making on the Tibetan Plateau, a trilingual online exhibition—in English, Chinese, and Tibetan—produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The exhibition draws in part from the vast archive of digital materials acquired by the Center through the community-driven research of the Tibetan Nomad Material Culture Documentation Project and the Ethnic Tibetan Artisans in China Documentation Project.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Oral history
label: Genre/Form
content: digital photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: digital moving image formats
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Tibetan Nomad Material Culture Documentation Project collection contains 4.4 terabytes of born digital video and photographic material collected by four teams in four traditionally Tibetan counties in three provinces in Western China.

The materials document traditional nomadic life: herding, gender roles, the making of household items like baskets and textiles, clothing, games, foodways, religious events and celebrations, traditional tools, and the history, social life, and struggles of each community as expressed through interviews with community members.