The Art Dynasty in the Snowland—The Sholkhang Family ▎Celebrated Masters of the Holy City (II)
Artistic family
The Sholkhang family (ཞོལ་ཁང་) originated in the Tsang region of Tibet and was later granted an estate in the Chonggye area of Lhokha (Shannan), where a pleasant country residence stood in the Chonggye Valley. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, this family rarely appeared in historical records.
Chonggye Valley
In the late 19th century, Dondrub Phuntsok (དོན་གྲུབ་ཕུན་ཚོགས), a member of the Sholkhang family, enjoyed a meteoric rise through the official ranks, advancing from a fifth-rank official to Kalön and subsequently to Lonchen (བློན་ཆེན།, meaning "Chief Minister"), a position that existed briefly from the late 19th to the early 20th century. He wielded considerable influence within the local government and the court, passing away in 1925. His son, Dondrub Dorje (དོན་གྲུབ་རྡོ་རྗེ), then took charge of family affairs.
Sholkhang Lonchen (1910)
Although Dondrub Dorje did not hold a significant official post, he enjoyed watching song and dance performances and Tibetan opera in his spare time. Influenced and inspired by this, his two children, Thubten Nyima (ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཉི་མ།, 1921–1991) and Sonam Dhargye (བསོད་ནམས་དར་རྒྱས།, 1922–2007), developed a love for the art of song and dance from an early age.
Thubten Nyima was favored by the court from the time of his birth; the name "Thubten" (ཐུབ་བསྟན།) in his name is the best evidence of this. Following convention, he became a monk official (later laicizing), but as time passed, he seemed to become the most open-minded among this conservative group.
Sholkhang Thubten Nyima and his wife Tsarong Dondrub Dolma
(1961, included in *Lhasa Anecdotes*)
The Italian Tibetologist Luciano Petech once described him as "a man of some advanced views, optimistic and friendly," while the people of Lhasa called him "Sholkhang Jédung La" (ཞོལ་ཁང་རྗེ་དུང་ལགས།, with "Jédung" being an honorific term for monk officials). He loved the arts and was skilled in playing the dramyin and singing. He also served as an instrumental music teacher in the Nangma Gidü. In the 1940s, on the streets of Lhasa, this young monk official could often be seen riding a motorcycle to play football in the southwestern suburbs, making him a frequent target of criticism from the conservative monk official community.
Sonam Dhargye was sent by his family to live in his ancestral home in Chonggye during his early childhood due to certain circumstances. In this remote village, far from the bustling city, song and dance were the most common emotional outlets for the generations who lived there. They wove blessings or simple teachings into their lyrics and passed them down through the ages.
Shannan Gorshé (1980s, photo by Zhang Ying)
The forms of their artistic expression were also very rich, with classics including Zhéchen (གཞས་ཆེན།, ritual songs), Bé (རྦད།, war songs), Gorshé (སྒོར་གཞས།, celebratory dances), and the Tibetan opera style "Trashi Shölpa" (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཞོལ་པ།). Different regions had very distinct local characteristics. In his youth, Sonam Dhargye often heard the villagers singing in the vicinity of his residence. Under their tutelage, he mastered the simple singing techniques and lyrics of these folk music forms, which became his artistic initiation.
Trashi Shölpa Tibetan Opera (1986, photo by Zhang Ying)
Sonam Dhargye began his early education at the age of seven and was soon taken by his family to live in Lhasa, where he enrolled in the Post Office Private School (ཏར་ཁང་སློབ་གྲྭ།). His family in Lhasa was passionate about the art of song and dance, with several members capable of performing Toéshé and Nangma. They often invited members of the Nangma Gidü to play music at their home. Influenced by his family, Sonam Dhargye studied the dramyin as well as Nangma and Toéshé under Ajo Namgyal (ཨ་ཇོ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ།), who was then the leader of the Nangma Gidü. Around the time school ended each day, a family servant would wait for him at the school gate carrying a six-stringed lute (dramyin). Together, they would then walk home, playing and singing along the way through the alleys of Barkhor.
Ajo Namgyal (1930s, photo by Spencer Chapman)
At the age of sixteen, Sonam Dhargye completed his studies at the government audit office "Tsikhang" (རྩིས་ཁང་ལས་ཁུངས།) and officially embarked on his official career (those from noble families who completed their studies at the audit office and entered officialdom were considered among the elite). At the same time, he also joined the Nangma Gidü. The people of Lhasa, recognizing his learning and artistic achievements, respectfully called him "Sholkhang Sé Taje La" (ཞོལ་ཁང་སྲས་ཞབས་དར་རྒྱས་ལགས།, meaning "Young Master Sholkhang Taje").
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye in a Precious Ornamental Robe (1942, included in *The Ocean of Song and Dance*)
There has long been debate over whether the aristocratic figures within the Nangma Gidü served as "patrons" or as "Gidü members," which we will not elaborate on here. Individuals such as the Sholkhang brothers, Mangnangpa, Nokhang, and Chemey Sonam Paljor were all renowned amateur members of this group.
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye (first from left) and his fellow amateur performers (1942, included in *The Ocean of Song and Dance*)
Mangnangpa (1940s)
With the passing of important members like Ajo Namgyal in 1942 due to illness, and the retirement of other renowned musicians due to old age, the Nangma Gidü gradually declined. In 1943, at the age of twenty-one, Sonam Dhargye was transferred to the western region of Saga to serve as the Dzongpön (District Officer).
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye in Official Ceremonial Robe (1940s)
Reviving Ancient Music
In the 1950s, the open-minded Thubten Nyima naturally became a well-known public figure in society. Meanwhile, Sonam Dhargye was transferred back to Lhasa from elsewhere. With his deep passion for the art of song and dance, he participated in the preparatory work for many official art groups at the time, the largest of which was the Tibet Song and Dance Ensemble.
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye Taking a Photograph (1980s, included in *Norbu Chözang's Toéshé Collection*)
In 1978, Sonam Dhargye was appointed as a professor at the School of Arts, Tibet University, beginning his work in music education and the preservation of classical Tibetan song and dance arts. A few years later, together with Garpön Pasang Dündul and Tashi Tsering, he became a core member in the revival of classical song and dance arts at Tibet University.
Group Photo at the School of Arts, Tibet University
From right: Tashi Tsering, Garpön Pasang Dündul,
Painter Tendrap Rabten, Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye
(1992)
By organizing and deciphering classical musical scores and ancient artistic treatises, they left behind a rich cultural legacy for future generations. Works such as Sakya Paṇḍita's *Treatise on Music* and Desi Sanggye Gyatso's *A Feast for the Mind: Delighting the Eyes and Ears* were among the fruits of the labor of the many song and dance revivalists at Tibet University at that time.
Cover of *Treatise on Music* (1980s, published by The Nationalities Publishing House)
During his teaching career, Sonam Dhargye did not confine himself to the study. In his spare time after lectures, he often conducted fieldwork. Perhaps it was his childhood experiences that made him long for the tranquility of the countryside, or perhaps it was those ancient chants deeply embedded in his memory. During his investigations, he compiled many ancient folk songs that had been buried by time and neglected, and he authored the monograph *A History of Tibetan Music*.
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye Performing Toéshé at Home (1980s, included in *Norbu Chözang's Toéshé Collection*)
Cover of *A History of Tibetan Music* (1992, published by Tibet People's Publishing House)
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye Discussing with Artistic Colleagues (1980s, included in *The Ocean of Song and Dance*)
In addition to the classical music forms Toéshé and Nangma, Mr. Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye made significant achievements in the field of Ache Lhamo (Tibetan opera) research. Besides writing detailed papers and monographs, he also mentored many experts in related fields during his tenure at the university.
Notable figures such as the renowned Belgian anthropologist Isabelle (see link: CHARU Sharing Session 56 | Professor Isabelle and Ache Lhamo Studies) and the instrumentalist Jala (see link: An Encounter with a Folk Master in Lhasa! Unveiling the Mysteries of Classical Tibetan Music), who still teaches at Tibet University, were students of the esteemed elder.
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye and Isabelle (Source: *Sambhota Connection*)
Art Performance at Tibet University
From right: Garpön Pasang Dündul, Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye, Tashi Tsering, Jala
(1990s, included in *Norbu Chözang's Toéshé Collection*)
Melodious Chanting
1992 Album Release
*Classical Music of Tibet*
Toéshé and Nangma Sections
Performed by Mr. Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye and Others
Cover of the Album *Classical Music of Tibet* (Published by Tibet Audio-Visual Publishing House)
བཀྲ་ཤིས་ལྡུམ་རའི་ནང་ལ།
Within the auspicious grove,
གཡང་ཆགས་མེ་ཏོག་འཁྲུངས་བཞག
Auspicious vapors gather.
སྔ་དྲོའི་ཟིལ་པ་མ་ཡལ།
Blessings converge, blooming as flowers.
ཉིན་དགུང་སྦྲང་ཆར་བབས་བྱུང་།
The morning dew has not yet vanished;
By midday, sweet rain has already fallen.
ནང་མ་༼བཀྲ་ལ་ཤིས་པ།༽
Nangma: Trashi Shiba
Lhasa Summer Palace Garden (2019, photo by the author)
འཛོམས་པ་སྤང་གི་རྒྱན་རེད།
Ornaments of the beautiful meadow,
སྤང་རྒྱན་མེ་ཏོག་དཀར་པོ།
The white flower is the Lily.
སྤང་ལ་འགྱུར་བ་མ་གཏོང་།
Do not need to tend the meadow grass,
གཡུ་སྦྲང་ལས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་ཡོང་།
The bees will come to gather of their own accord.
ནང་མ་༼འཛོམས་པ་རྣམ་གསུམ།༽
Nangma: Dzompa Namsum
Meadow in the Valley (2021, photo by the author)
རྒྱ་གླིང་གནས་ཆུང་ཟེར་བ།
A small place called Gyaling,
རྣ་བས་ཐོས་བ་མ་གཏོགས།
I had only heard of it by ear.
རྒྱ་གླིང་སྲས་ཆུང་སྐུ་ཞབས།
The young master of Gyaling,
ཡིན་འགྲོ་བསམ་པ་མ་བྱུང་།
I never thought we would meet.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼རྒྱ་གླིང་སྲས།༽
Toéshé: The Young Master of Gyaling
[Note: Tashi, a young man from the Gyachüling estate in Shannan, was sent by his family to Lhasa to handle a legal dispute over land. In the city, Tashi became acquainted with Ajo Namgyal and also fell in love with a Lhasa girl. However, when his father heard this news, he flew into a rage and wrote a stern letter demanding that he return home immediately to become a live-in son-in-law. The young man was distraught. Ajo Namgyal, upon hearing his story, composed this piece...]
Melancholy Young Man (IG: Kuranishi)
དཀའ་ལས་བྱས་པ་ཅན་གྱི།
This journey is sure to be fraught with hardship,
ཨ་མའི་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་ནོར་བཟང་།
My lord, Prince Norsang.
ཁ་ལ་ཉན་པའི་བུ་ཆུང་།
Obedient son before your mother,
བྱང་ནས་འཁོར་བ་ཡག་བྱུང་།
May you return in triumph from the north.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼ནོར་བཟང་རྒྱ་ལུ།༽
Toéshé: *Prince Norsang*
[Note: As a classic literary figure, Prince Norsang frequently appears in Tibetan opera, folk songs, and other performing arts. This Toéshé, *Prince Norsang*, depicts the scene of his triumphant return from the northern lands...]
Ancient Armored Knight of Ü-Tsang (IG: Kuranishi)
In 2007,
As the curtain fell on his life,
Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye
Extended his sincere regards
To the countless people dedicated to preserving classical humanities and arts,
And encouraged future generations
To hold this in their hearts.