Top: Local Mongolians in Ordos perform their traditional chopstick dance, an intangible cultural heritage item. Above left: A dance opera features traditional Ordos wedding customs. Above right: Ts Bileg has helped revive the traditional ceremonies of the Mongolian ethnic group. [Photos by Liu Wenhua and Provided to China Daily]

Traditional Mongolian weddings are known for their outstanding attire, mesmerizing melodies and dazzling ornaments. But they were heading for the pages of history until Ts Bileg decided to act. Wang Kaihao and Yuan Hui report from Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

If it is grand traditional Mongolian wedding ceremonies you want to see, there's one man you can count on. Since the 1990s, Ts Bileg, a 67-year-old from the Mongolian ethnic group in Ordos, a city in the southwest of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, has written 18 dance operas for 15 troupes on the traditional Ordos wedding - a series of rituals dating back to the time of Genghis Khan, which were listed as national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006.

His shows have been staged in more than 10 countries and regions. Nevertheless, the man is not satisfied with the wedding ceremonies being recreated only onstage.

"Cultural heritage is meant not only for the stage," he says. "It has no significance if it is not part of people's lives."

Explaining how he decided to stay close to tradition when reviving the ceremonies, he recalled when he was traveling around Ordos in the 1980s visiting different Mongolian tribes to source elements for his shows, he was often told by people that he should not cater to modern tastes at the cost of tradition.

"That was when I decided to revive traditional rituals," he says.

However, only a few people who could conduct traditional Mongolian weddings were still active then. Those who conduct the weddings must know Mongolian culture and the wedding rituals well, he says.

A typical Ordos wedding, he says, takes four to five days and is rich with detail.

Though he says he attended big weddings in his childhood, the tradition began to gradually fade away, and the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) hastened its demise.

Speaking about how he managed to produce his dance operas, he says: "I managed to get hold of a few reference books and a few people from the older generation."

Now, to keep the tradition alive, he has set up training schools. Speaking about how long it will take to train the youngsters, he says that while it does not take long to explain the process to the students, it takes lots of practice - like hosting many weddings - to perfect the skill.

"We have to ensure those who want to conduct traditional weddings are knowledgeable if we want to revive tradition."

Today, 32 people can conduct such weddings in Ordos, and some of them are in their 30s.

For the future, he plans to have 28 training centers on Ordos' grasslands.

Explaining the need for so many training centers, he says this is because of the various styles of weddings in different banners, or county-level administrative regions in Inner Mongolia.

For instance, in the Ejin Horo banner, where the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan is located, the weddings of the local Darhad people - who have been guarding the mausoleums for the last 800 years - are not ostentatious.

However, weddings in the Uxin banner are more flamboyant and colorful.