Tibetan Opera sings through the ages

The play tells the story of a Tibetan serf girl and the son of a noble family who fall in love because of a six-string guitar. Their love is doomed due to the disparity of their statuses but they manage to spend their twilight years together, thanks to the democratic reform that happened in Tibet 60 years ago.

Since its debut in 2016, the play has been staged over 100 times for over 50,000 people.

Despite the declining influence of Tibetan operas, the protection and inheritance of the genre have been stepped up over the past decades. The government-funded Tibetan Opera troupe was established in the 1960s.

Tibetan Opera was included in the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006, three years before its recognition by UNESCO.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the UNESCO listing, the troupe is driving the "modernization" of the traditional art form using stage technologies, digital marketing and modern shows.

"Creating a new show usually takes two years and needs an upfront investment of more than 2 million yuan ($284,000). But new titles are more modern and accepted by the masses," says Bamdien Wangjo.

He has been working with the troupe for 24 years and is the first Tibetan Opera artist to receive the Plum Blossom Prize, the top theater award in China.