Snowland’s Artistic Heritage—The Sholkhang Family ▎Honored Masters of the Holy City (II)
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the Sholkhang family (ཞོལ་ཁང་), an artistic family, rarely appeared in historical records. Originating in the Tsang region of Tibet, it was later granted an estate in the Chonggye area of Lhokha (Shannan), where the Chonggye Valley held a pleasant country residence.
Dondrub Phuntsok (དོན་གྲུབ་ཕུན་ཚོགས), a member of the Sholkhang family, passed away in 1925. In the late 19th century, he rose rapidly through the official hierarchy, progressing from a fifth-rank official to Kalön and then to Lonchen (བློན་ཆེན།, meaning "Chief Minister"), a role that was only in existence from the late 19th through the early 20th century. He held substantial sway over both the local government and the court. After his death, his son Dondrub Dorje (དོན་གྲུབ་རྡོ་རྗེ) took over the management of family matters.
Thubten Nyima (ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཉི་མ།, 1921–1991) and Sonam Dhargye (བསོད་ནམས་དར་རྒྱས།, 1922–2007), the two children of Dondrub Dorje, were drawn to the art of song and dance from a young age. This passion grew out of the influence and inspiration of their father, who, despite not occupying any significant official position, spent his leisure time watching song and dance performances and Tibetan opera. From birth, Thubten Nyima enjoyed the favor of the court, as is best shown by the name "Thubten" (ཐུབ་བསྟན།) included in his name.
After first entering the monk-official ranks as convention required, he later returned to lay life, and in time came to be regarded as the most liberal-minded figure in that conservative circle. He was known among Lhasa's residents as "Sholkhang Jédung La" (ཞོལ་ཁང་རྗེ་དུང་ལགས།, with "Jédung" being an honorific for monk officials), and the Italian Tibetologist Luciano Petech once described him as "a man of some advanced views, optimistic and friendly." He had a deep love for the arts and was adept at playing the dramyin and singing.
Because of certain circumstances, Sonam Dhargye was sent by his family to spend his early childhood at their ancestral home in Chonggye. During the 1940s, he was a young monk official who could frequently be seen on Lhasa's streets riding a motorcycle to go play football in the southwestern outskirts, which earned him regular rebukes from the conservative monk official community. In addition, he taught instrumental music at the Nangma Gidü.
Generations in this isolated hamlet, far from any bustling city, most often turned to song and dance as their emotional release. Blessings and simple lessons were woven into the lyrics and handed down over time. Their artistic forms were equally varied, encompassing classics like ritual songs Zhéchen (གཞས་ཆེན།), war songs Bé (རྦད།), celebratory dances Gorshé (སྒོར་གཞས།), and the Tibetan opera style "Trashi Shölpa" (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཞོལ་པ།). Distinct local traits set each region apart.
When Sonam Dhargye was seven, his formal schooling began. Shortly afterward, his family moved with him to Lhasa, where he was admitted to the Post Office Private School (ཏར་ཁང་སློབ་གྲྭ།). In Lhasa, his household held a deep enthusiasm for song and dance, and several of its members were able to perform Toéshé and Nangma. During his younger years, Sonam Dhargye often listened to villagers singing close to his home. From them, he learned the basic vocal techniques and words of those folk songs, and that experience became his first step into the arts.
Each day around the time school let out, a family servant would be waiting at the gate holding a six-stringed lute (dramyin). He and Sonam Dhargye would then head home together through the alleys of Barkhor, playing and singing as they went. Sonam Dhargye, under the influence of his household, had studied the dramyin along with Nangma and Toéshé under Ajo Namgyal (ཨ་ཇོ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ།), who was then the leader of the Nangma Gidü. The family would frequently invite members of the Nangma Gidü to their home to provide music.
Recognized for his scholarly and artistic accomplishments, Sonam Dhargye was respectfully called "Sholkhang Sé Taje La" (ཞོལ་ཁང་སྲས་ཞབས་དར་རྒྱས་ལགས།, meaning "Young Master Sholkhang Taje") by the people of Lhasa. At the age of sixteen, he finished his schooling at the government audit office "Tsikhang" (རྩིས་ཁང་ལས་ཁུངས།) and then formally commenced his official career—a route regarded as elite for noble offspring who had completed their audit office studies and entered government service. During that same period, he also became a member of the Nangma Gidü.
For a long time, there has been disagreement over whether the noble personalities associated with the Nangma Gidü acted as "patrons" or as "Gidü members," a matter we will not explore here. Among this group, the Sholkhang brothers, Mangnangpa, Nokhang, and Chemey Sonam Paljor were all celebrated as amateur participants. Concerning the renewal of ancient music, the liberal-minded Thubten Nyima naturally rose to be a well-known public figure in 1950s society, while Sonam Dhargye was at that time brought back to Lhasa from a different place.
Many official art groups of that era benefited from his early organizational efforts, stemming from his profound love of music and dance; the largest among these was the Tibet Song and Dance Ensemble. Through cataloguing and interpreting classical music notations and ancient artistic writings, they passed down a lasting cultural heritage to the generations that followed.
Sonam Dhargye's teaching career extended well beyond academic study. Between lectures, he often devoted his leisure hours to fieldwork. This might have been prompted by a childhood desire for the calm of rural areas, or by the ancient chants still deeply etched in his mind. Meanwhile, at Tibet University at that time, many song and dance revivalists were laboring, and their efforts bore fruit in works such as Sakya Paṇḍita's *Treatise on Music* and Desi Sanggye Gyatso's *A Feast for the Mind: Delighting the Eyes and Ears*.
Mr. Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye achieved significant results in the study of Ache Lhamo (Tibetan opera), alongside the classical music forms Toéshé and Nangma. He also collected many ancient folk songs that had long been overlooked and forgotten during his research, and wrote the monograph *A History of Tibetan Music*. In addition to producing detailed papers and monographs, he mentored numerous specialists in related fields while serving at the university.
The esteemed elder taught several prominent students, among them the noted Belgian anthropologist Isabelle (see link: CHARU Sharing Session 56 | Professor Isabelle and Ache Lhamo Studies) and Jala, an instrumentalist (see link: An Encounter with a Folk Master in Lhasa! Unveiling the Mysteries of Classical Tibetan Music). Jala remains a lecturer at Tibet University to this day.
A rt 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 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.
The morning dew lingers still; by midday, gentle rain has come. Trashi Shiba is the Nangma’s name—its ornament, the splendor of the lush meadow, where the white lily blooms. Leave the meadow grass untended; of its own accord, the bee arrives to gather.
ནང་མ་༼འཛོམས་པ་རྣམ་གསུམ།༽ Nangma: Dzompa Namsum 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 met Ajo Namgyal and developed feelings for a girl from Lhasa. Yet upon learning of this, his father grew furious and sent a firm letter ordering him to come back at once and serve as a live-in son-in-law. Deeply troubled, the young man shared his plight with Ajo Namgyal, who then created this composition...] དཀའ་ལས་བྱས་པ་ཅན་གྱི། This path will certainly be filled with trials, ཨ་མའི་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་ནོར་བཟང་། My lord, Prince Norsang.
May you return in triumph from the north, obedient son in your mother’s presence. These words correspond to the Tibetan lines ཁ་ལ་ཉན་པའི་བུ་ཆུང་། and བྱང་ནས་འཁོར་བ་ཡག་བྱུང་།, from the Toéshé *Prince Norsang* (སྟོད་གཞས་༼ནོར་བཟང་རྒྱ་ལུ།༽). Prince Norsang, a classic literary figure, is frequently featured in Tibetan opera, folk songs, and other performing arts.
Depicting the triumphant homecoming from the northern lands is the Toéshé *Prince Norsang*. In 2007, at the end of his life, Sholkhang Sonam Dhargye expressed his sincere respect to the many people devoted to classical humanities and arts, and urged future generations to keep this close to their hearts.