Garpon La: The Last Music Master of the Potala Palace
Garpon La Garpon Pema Thondup (1917–1998), born in 1917 in the Palang area of Shigatse, Tibet, served as the last music master of the Potala Palace court dance and music troupe in the twentieth century. He was referred to as "Garpon" or "Kha r dpon" (གར་དཔོན།), and the people of Lhasa used the honorific title "Garpon La" (གར་དཔོན་ལགས།) when addressing him. His smile revealed his humility and composure. Living in a time of change, Garpon La had a rather legendary life, transforming from a dance child into a music master.
In 1938, the local government was about to start choosing a fresh cohort of dance children, which came twelve years after his own selection as a dance child in 1926. At that time, Pema Thondup, aged 21, possessed both strong performance abilities and proficiency with the instruments accompanying all eight forms of Gar music and dance.
In 1949, the scheduled selection of new music masters took place, hosted by the Drönyer Chemmo (Chief Chamberlain of the court) Phala Thubten Wöiden. This process was more stringent than the one used for selecting dance children. Having retired as a dance child and achieved high artistic standing in the troupe, he had been given the title of Shödrung (attendant to officials) and made a teacher for the court dance troupe, where he trained the newly enrolled dance children.
The Chief Chamberlain’s duties included communication between the court and local government, as well as the right to determine who might gain entry to the palace. As a result, he commanded considerable standing within the local government during that period.
Before the Chief Chamberlain, Pema Thondup, aged 32, skillfully rendered all the Gar song lyrics and performed the related instruments. Recognizing his high artistic and administrative abilities, the Chief Chamberlain conferred on him the position of court music master. As for the revival of the Elegant Music, the court dance troupe was dissolved in 1959 because of circumstances.
By the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Gar music and dance performances had already ceased for nearly two decades. During this span, members of the elegant music and dance troupe went their separate ways—some took up posts as government department employees, while others went back to their hometowns to farm or chose to live in seclusion. Before that, its dance members had been assigned in turn to the Lhagang Qu Power Station in eastern Lhasa and to the northern Tibet region for borax mining exploration work.
In 1982, at the Tibet Autonomous Region Mass Art Museum, Pema Thondup and ten former court dance troupe members began rescuing Gar art, driven by the inspiration and encouragement of several individuals. Working together, they assembled nearly four hundred classical music scores and issued a collection of fifty-eight Gar song scores under the title *Cloud of Offering Music and Dance*.
At the same time, twelve youngsters from the Chik region on the south bank of the Lhasa River were recruited by troupe members, who taught them Gar music and dance, as well as Toe she and Nangma, during their free time. At every performance by these dance children, Lhasa residents flocked to attend, resulting in standing-room-only crowds. In the mid-1980s, Pema Thondup and his fellow court dance troupe member Tashi Tsering were hired by the College of Art at Tibet University.
In the Kashmir region, while traveling abroad, Garpon came across a precious ancient music score titled *A Feast Pleasing to the Eyes, Ears, and Mind*, compiled by Desi Sangye Gyatso. The early revivalists of ancient music, along with many renowned musicians, worked tirelessly to preserve Tibet's classical song and dance arts. Among their most significant achievements was the transcription of traditional Gongche notation and other ancient scores into the internationally used numbered musical notation.
After he decoded and organized it, the piece was formally released. In 1987, Pema Thondup and the Tibet Song and Dance Troupe were invited to the UK to play the Gar instrumental piece *"Golden Wheel, Holy Land Lhasa"* at the London International Arts Festival. That performance, the first ever for Gar on an international stage, caused enormous reactions both at home and abroad.
Besides releasing music albums of celebrated ancient melodies—so that the melodious strains of classical music such as Garlu, Toe she, and Nangma could once again resound beneath the holy skies of Lhasa—they also presented the instrumental piece "Glorious Dharma Wheel Lhasa" (དཔལ་གྱི་ཆོས་འཁོར་ལྷ་ས།), which is the Supreme Vajra Seat (རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན་མཆོག) and a Wish-Fulfilling Jewel (ནོར་བུ་དགོས་འདོད་ཀུན་འབྱུང་།).
Modern magnetic tape and light have permanently preserved the ancient, melodious songs, giving us the rare opportunity to hear the Potala Palace's chanting. On the album, nine Gar elegant music pieces were performed by Garpon Pema Thondup, who was seventy-five years old at the time. Released in 1992, *Tibetan Classical Music* was the most famous among these. Timeless Ancient Music ལམ་དུ་འགྲོ་བའི་ས་གཞི་ནི་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་པདྨས་ཁེངས་འདུག ། The ground along the path is filled with lotuses.
At the summit of the holy mountain, Mount Potala, I behold the sacred golden roofs and victorious banners. A face appears on the way along the path. I set out to make offerings to the divine realms. Instrumental Piece "Journey" (ལམ་འགྲོ།). The place I reside in is a beautiful celestial palace.
From high within the vast openness of the heavens, a shower of blossoms descends, sent by the deities. In the Male Dance "The Holy Mountain Potala," a ceremonial scarf of saffron silk brocade, imported from the region of Kashmir, is presented to the esteemed Lama as an offering.
From the depths of the ocean are brought jewels of fire-crystal and water-crystal, presented as a ceremonial scarf offering to the Great Master of Provisions. Muskets inlaid with gold and silver, produced in the land of Ladakh, are likewise offered as a ceremonial scarf to the Great Lord. A ceremonial scarf is also offered to Sangye Gyatso.
At the border where the meadow and forest meet, a brown bear dwells at ease, and there, accompanied by joyous and pleasing melodies, a blissful and sacred dance is performed—this is the female dance known as "Offering from Kashmir." The scene evokes a lofty golden mountain and a beautiful turquoise meadow, filled with splendor, renown, complete happiness, and auspiciousness. Then follows the instrumental piece "Lofty Golden Mountain." At the very summit of the Peaceful Garuda Peak, I present a sang smoke offering to the deities.
In Zangskar, known as the Eastern Continent of Maitreya, great blessings have gathered, and the noble Sangha is fully present, so the sun of the teachings has risen. This is celebrated in the Processional Drum Music "Peaceful Garuda Peak" (ཕེབས་རྔའི་གླུ་༼ཞི་བདེ་ཁྱུང་འཛོམས།༽). At the top of the Tree of All-Excellent Jewels, a turquoise bird soars with a swaying motion, as described in the Processional Drum Music "Eastern Zangskar" (ཕེབས་རྔའི་གླུ་༼ཟངས་དཀར་ཤར།༽).
Beside a clear lake, in a pasture of tender new grass, wild geese and thrushes frolic, beating their wings. A girl's pleasant song drifts forth from deep among the trees. Jambudvipa is full of streams and springs. And high above, something rides the wind with playful wings, as though dancing.
The instrumental piece “The Tree of All-Excellent Jewels” (ཀུན་ལེགས་ནོར་བུ།) holds its place with the one renowned in Ü-Tsang, the Lord Tsangpa Desi (དཔོན་སྡེ་པ་གཙང་པ།). Upon the summit of the Auspicious Snow Mountain Peak (བཀྲ་ཤིས་གངས་དཀར།), I have planted a prayer flag of the supreme medicine. Even if fierce winds sweep out of the distant forests beyond, here I remain, steady and unyielding.
གངས་དཀར་མཐོན་པའི་ཉི་མ་ལ། The sun shining upon the high Snow Mountains, ཉི་མ་ཚ་གྲང་ཞིག་ཆེ་བྱུང་། The sun's warmth and cold are great and varied. གཞན་ཡང་བུ་ཚ་ང་མི་འདྲ་ལ། Though I, a youth, am different from others, ཙན་དན་དཀར་པོའི་ལྗོན་ཤིང་ཡལ་འདབ་རྒྱས་པའི་དུས་སུ། At the time when the white sandalwood tree's leaves spread wide, བུ་ཚ་ངའི་བསམ་དོན་ཞིག་འགྲུབ་སོང་། All this youth's wishes were fulfilled. ཕེབས་རྔའི་གླུ་༼བཀྲ་ཤིས་གངས་དཀར་རྩེ།༽ Processional Drum Music "Auspicious Snow Mountain Peak"