Tibetan style square dance: Guozhuang

Nearly every Tibetan can sing and dance. This special kind of dance surrounding bonfire in Tibet is called Guozhuang, meaning "singing and dancing in a circle" in the local dialect.

The dance was originated in ancient times when a group of travelling merchants set up a bonfire for making tea at night. Now the Guozhuang dance is commonly seen in public squares in Tibet Autonomous Region, with or without the bonfire, serving as exercise and as a social event for the local people.

People of all ages gather for the dance, moving clockwise in a circle, and singing hand-in-hand. They chant in a happy, rhythmic pattern as they move.

The bonfire dance was honored as an intangible cultural heritage in 2006 when China issued a list of its first nationally ranked cultural heritage sites.