Citizens enjoy standard dance of happiness in the Potala Palace Square. Photo by Chen Jiajia

When night falls and evening lights are lit, the hot air gradually fades out of Lhasa. The bustling crowds, together with the square full of singing and dancing, bring this pearl on the snow-covered plateau a place great vitality and energy.

In the Potala Palace, Norbulingka Summer Palace and Zongjiaolukang Park, people in Lhasa start their most joyful activity of the day. Along with the music pleasant to the ears, people get to the standard Lhasa happiness dance in a distinctive ethnic style. A lot of passers-by and tourists stop walking and cannot move their eyes from such cheerful dancing. Now and then people join in the dancing group.

The standard Lhasa happiness dance is known to be created by five professional choreographers aged 30 on average from Lhasa Mass Art Gallery, who combine the lively and passionate traditional dance movements with novel and flexible modern dance, blending in such traditional Tibetan elements as Guozhuang, Sgor-Gzhas and Xianzi, endowing the dance with distinguished features.

“Compared to the traditional Guozhuang dance, the standard Lhasa happiness dance has a stronger tempo, more concise movements and is easier to learn”, Ciren Jiacuo said, who has been a dance lover for 30 years, was really happy to be a dance instructor recently. Every evening, he goes to Zongjiaolukang Park to give dancing instructions to local Tibetans and the tourists from all corners of the country or even the other side of the ocean. Ciren Jiacuo gets much pleasures of his own from looking at his students attentively following the dancing steps.

“In recent years, we’ve focused our efforts on improving people’s living, basically achieving the targets that everyone has a roof over the head, every kid can study at school, everyone has their own work to do, and every patient can be treated and the elderly taken care of timely. Since 2006, the Economic Life Survey organized by CCTV and National Bureau of Statistics shows that, the happiness index in Lhasa ranks the first for consecutive years; we are very pleased by learning that. The standard Lhasa happiness dance as a mass cultural activity carried out throughout the city is to display to the world our good image of national civilized city and happy life and add happiness to our people” Qi Zhala, Secretary of CPC Committee of Lhasa City, told the reporter with great excitement.

The original intension of this cultural activity is to express and deliver happiness via dancing. From Jan. 19, 2013, Lhasa Mass Art Gallery and Propaganda Department of Chengguan District Committee have organized 96 key artistic workers from 32 communities persistently spend 3 hours every day in collectively rehearsing the standard “Happiness Lhasa” dance in Zongjiaolukang Park. Such songs as A Wish for Lhasa, Happiness Lhasa and Daughters of the Same Mother used in the standard dance are all symbolizing happiness and luck either in a cheerful or agreeable tone.

At present, learning the standard Lhasa happiness dance has already become a beautiful human view in Lhasa, receiving a warm welcome from the masses.

“Until I began learning the standard dance, we have no idea how to spend the spare time besides worshiping Buddha and turning scripture. But now we start enjoy the standard dancing, that can not only build up body but also get a cheerful mood, which is so good!” said Banjor, a 58-aged citizen from Bayi Community, Chengguan District, Lhasa City.

Lina Yeh, an American tourist dancing in the Potala Palace Square, happily said, “I used to think Tibetan is an ethnic group skilled in dancing and singing before coming here; today, dancing with them hand in hand makes me so happy; Lhasa has beautiful landscape, people and culture, I will tell all my friends that Tibet is a happy place.”