The 1959 political breakup caused a “One Tibet, two regions”. One mainly part of Tibetans settled in indigenous Tibet where belongs to the Tibetan Autonomous Region, another part of them located in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan province in China. The other Tibetans followed their theocratic leader, H.H. 14th Dalai Lama, crossed the Himalayas to build up the Tibetan exile government and settlements in India. To the Tibetan people, the exile was a painful experience. Besides, the 1959 political event was an important watershed for Tibetan history. From then on, the Tibetan opera “a-lce-lha-mo” has distinct developments in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in India’s Tibetan Refuge for 50 years. Although in the 50 some years, there have been fragmentary performances, some vocal data products, or interaction through commerce and travel between two regions, basically, the political stance of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and the India Tibetan Refugee Area are different and cultural exchanges have also been broken. This is the reason why they each maintain their own traditional systems, expressions of performance and musical esthetics. The author believed that such parallel development can be described by using the music terminology “paraphony”, originally used to describe the coexistence of 4th degree and 5th degree interval in music. Later it was used by modern Netherland scholar Mark C. van Tongeren to describe the coexistence of the fundamental and overtone music phenomenon. The author now uses this term to describe the dual parallel development of culture and the relation between those residing in Tibet and those exiled from Tibet.
The prelude “don” is the first part of Tibetan Opera “a-lce-lha-mo”. Its music has the most fixed form. In this part, there are three main roles－rngon-pa, rgya-lu and lha-mo. Professor Lobsang Dorjee (blo-b.zang-rdo-rje) ever mentioned the functions of their individual performances as “The rngon-pa cleans and exorcises the bad luck of earth”, “The rgya-lu gives blessings to others”, “The primary mission of lha-mo is to dance and sing”, therefore the character of the prelude “don” is mainly on ceremonial affection rather than on dramatic entertainment. During Tibetan Opera Festival “zho-ston”, “don” has to be performed in different places, symbolizes the consolidation of religious core and social stratum. Nevertheless, the hierarchy of Tibet gradually has been destroyed in two regions after the diaspora of Tibetan people. The Tibetan Opera becomes an artistic form to bond the ethnic consciousness in exile Tibet and the performance venues have been transferred from temple to school; on the other hand, the “a-lce-lha-mo” in the Tibet Autonomous Region still celebrated every year in the Monastery and Norbulingka. As the Lhasa residents said, “a-lce-lha-mo” has two drafts scripts, one is to suit the Chinese government’s taste and the other is to service the Tibet People. Within Tibet, there are two kinds of esthetics developed, one caters to the Chinese leadership''s taste as Han style Tibetan Opera, and the other maintains the folk esthetics of Tibetan Opera.
When anthropologist Julian H. Steward proposed the ecology adaptation and cultural accommodation, he advocated that human behavior is not a routine one in accordance with the cultural pattern, but is a rational one. In this viewpoint, no matter whether cultural traits are from diffusion or self-invention, they are integrated into a useful organization. Cultural transmission is not unchangeable. According to this theory, the author considers that the Tibetan people crossed the Himalayas due to the 1959 political external force and came to Dharamsala in the Kangra area of Himachal Pradesh province in northwest India. They set up the Tibetan government in exile and many communities, schools, etc., all over India for the past 50 some years.
To sum up, the dissertation is divided into two parts, the first part emphasizes the prelude “don” and its historical development, the source of its movements, music analysis, etc. Discussing the general character viewpoint at different stages, the development and structure of “a-lce-lha-mo” in different times, the source of “a-lce-lha-mo” and the elements acquired from other religious dance, music, and traditional performing arts. The second part analyzes the instances of field research and music phenomenon after the 1959 political separation, and the individual developments and changes of the two regions, and explains works lost due to the separation when Tibetans passed down their music. Finally, the author studied the phenomenon of Tibet, from diaspora to the “paraphonic” and expounds the issues such as “From Tibet to India: the music change through political and environmental accommodation”, “The two types of Tibetan Opera mechanisms in Tibet”, “In Tibetan Opera, the vanishing pieces by diaspora and migration”, “The changing meaning of the cultural pattern”, “The paraphonic: creation and re-presentation of traditional culture in two social facts”, etc.