Listen to the Heavenly Sounds from the Streets of Lhasa ▎Masters of the Holy City (III)
ཁམ་སྡོང་མཐོ་རང་དྲགས་ནས།
The peach tree stands so tall,
ལག་པས་སྙོབ་ས་མིན་འདུག
My hands cannot reach it at all.
འབྲས་བུས་ཐུགས་བསམ་བཞེས་ན།
If the fruit has a heart for me,
སྐུ་པང་ནང་དུ་བབས་ཤོག
Let it fall into my bosom, plea.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼མཚོ་སྣ་འབྲས་གཞོང་།༽
Stod Gzhas (Mtsho-sna 'Bras-gzhong)
Street Singer
A ney la (ཨ་ནན་ལགས།), born in the Phenpo Lhündrub (ཕན་པོ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ།) region north of Lhasa in the early 20th century, lived with her niece, Döndrub Drolma (དོན་གྲུབ་སྒྲོལ་མ།), in Lhasa city, depending on each other. Döndrub Drolma ran a small shop selling tobacco and dried fruits near the Dechen Rabten (བདེ་ཆེན་རབ་བརྟན།) residence on North Barkhor Street.
Lhasa Market Scene (1938, Photographed by Ernst Schäfer)
Ane Lha was a Tibetan opera singer, performing at various weddings and celebrations. At the same time, members of the Lhasa Nangma Gyütö would also play music to add to the festivity on these occasions. Among the Gyütö at that time was a musician named Tsering Dorje (ཚེ་རིང་རྡོ་རྗེ།), who came from the Dakpo (དྭགས་པོ།) region in the southeast.
Ane Lha (1986, Photographed by Zhang Ying)
Like the famous Nangma Gyütö leader Achok Namgyal, this musician was also blind. His first wife left him due to the pressures of life. Later, at a ceremony, he met Ane Lha, and they became master and disciple. Tsering Dorje taught Ane Lha Nangma and Toe she, and Ane Lha took him in and took care of his daily needs.
Stalls in Barkhor Street (1938, Photographed by Ernst Schäfer)
Later, the intangible cultural heritage inheritor, the elderly Mr. Tashi Tsering, who had studied under Tsering Dorje, once recalled: "My teacher, Mr. Tsering Dorje, was cared for year-round by Aja Ane Lha. The teacher was responsible for teaching him Toe she and Nangma. During their long time together, the two gradually fell in love and were very affectionate. Although they maintained a master-disciple relationship publicly, in private they called each other 'Old Lady' (Lhasa slang written as "རྨོ་མདོག།") and 'Fat Big Brother' (Lhasa slang written as "འབོག་ལྭོ།")…"
A street vendor and her child (1936, from the internet)
After 1959, the urban area of Lhasa was placed under the jurisdiction of the Chengguan District. At that time, based on the directions of the area, four amateur song and dance groups were established. Tashi Tsering, along with his teacher Tsering Dorje, Ane Lha, and Qüxü·Yeshe Drolma (see below for details), joined the Eastern District Dance Troupe. Ane Lha was awarded the title of "Folk Artist" for her skill in singing. In 1962, she and Yeshe Drolma recorded a batch of precious audio materials at the Tibet Broadcasting Station, which are also among the earliest compiled materials of Toe she and Nangma music in China.
Ane Lha teaching students Toe she and Nangma (1962, included in "Lhasa Anecdotes")
Tavern Musician
Qushui Yeshe Drolma (ཆུ་ཤུལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོལ་མ།), born in the early 20th century in the Qüxü region west of Lhasa, ran a tavern with her husband (nicknamed "Gentleman" སྐུ་ཞབས།) on South Barkhor Street in Lhasa. The family was fairly well-off. As the tavern keeper, Yeshe Drolma was not only skilled at brewing fine wine but also proficient in playing the Dramyin.
Qushui Yeshe Drolma(1986, Photo by Zhang Ying)
Before the 20th century, there were almost no renowned female musicians in the Lhasa area. However, Yeshe Drolma, with her exquisite skill in singing and playing the Dramyin, became a famous folk instrumentalist in Lhasa. Although she was not a member of the Nangma Gyütö, her story was widely spread throughout Lhasa. A street song once sang:
ཆུ་ཤུལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོལ་མ། Chushur Yeshe Drolma,
ཊམ་ཀ་ག་ཚོད་བཏང་ཀ། How much is the wine today?
ང་རང་ཉོ་ཀི་མེད་དེ། I myself have no need to drink,
ཉོ་མཁན་འདུག་གས་བལྟ་ཆོག But I can help you find customers.
Qushui Yeshe Drolma
In the 1960s, Yeshe Drolma joined the Eastern District Dance Troupe and was awarded the title of "Folk Artist." From then on, she and Ane Lha became one of the most famous artistic duos for Toe she and Nangma in the Lhasa area from the 1960s to the 1980s. Notably, Ane Lha, despite suffering from a leg ailment, could still perform the complete fast-paced Toe she dance, which was regarded as legendary in Lhasa at that time.
Writer Nyima Dorje with Ane Lha and Yeshe Drolma (1980s, from the internet)
Unlike the professional Nangma Gyütö, the singing style of Ane Lha and Yeshe Drolma leaned more towards the streets, adopting a large number of Lhasa folk singing techniques. Their melodies were delicate, agile, and very pleasing to the ear. The lyrics were a blend of refined and popular elements, making them excellent examples of street music.
Ane Lha and Qüxü Yeshe Drolma performing at Norbulingka (1986, Photo by Zhang Ying)
In the present era where singing styles are becoming increasingly homogenized, these precious vocal materials will provide us with valuable artistic inspiration. They encourage us to innovate boldly on the foundation of tradition, integrating personal understanding and emotion into the classical musical lyrics. Through such practice, I believe that in the near future, classical art forms like Toe she and Nangma will achieve a higher level of development.
Folk customs expert Liao Dongfan with Ane Lha and Yeshe Drolma (1987, included in "My Tibet Story")
Sounds of the Streets
Through nearly two years of collection and compilation,
We are able to present to you all
The precious voices of two renowned artists.
The myriad lives and scenes of the holy city's streets
Are hidden within their songs.
Ane Lha and Qüxü Yeshe Drolma Album Cover
ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ས་དྲན་བྱུང་། I think of the place called Chökyi Chösa,
བསོད་ནམས་ལགས་ཀྱི་སྤང་རྒྱན། A jade hairpin adorns the blessed land.
སྤང་རྒྱན་ཁྲ་མའི་མེ་ཏོག The many-hued flowers of the meadows are seen,
ཡར་འབྲོག་བསམ་ལྡིང་དྲན་བྱུང་། I deeply think of Yamdrok Samding.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼བསོད་ནམས་སྤང་རྒྱན།༽ Stod Gzhas (Sönam Pangyen)
Yamdrok Yumtso
བསམ་ཡས་བྱ་ཕོ་དཀར་པོ། The sacred white rooster of Samye,
བྱ་སྐད་སྔ་པོ་མ་བསྐྱོན། Do not sound your early morning call.
ང་དང་ཆུང་འདྲིས་བྱམས་པ། My childhood sweetheart and I,
སྙིང་གཏམ་བཤད་འཕྲོས་ལུས་སོང་། Are lost in our tender words.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼ལྔ་བཞིས་དགུ་པ།༽ Stod Gzhas (Ngazhi Gugupa)
Note:
The sacred white rooster of Samye refers to the incarnation of the great deity Pekar at Samye Monastery.
Legend has it that one night, a fire suddenly broke out at Samye Monastery. The deity Pekar, incarnated as a white rooster, crowed to awaken the monks to extinguish the fire.
Since then, the white rooster has become the protector deity of Samye Monastery, and its image also appears in the halls of the monastery.
Samye Monastery (1938, Photographed by Ernst Schäfer)
ཆིབས་རྭ་གསར་པའི་ནང་གི་ཆིབས་དཔོན་ཚོ།
The horse keepers in the new stable,
སྒོ་ལྕགས་གསར་པའི་ལྡེ་མིག་གཡར་རོགས་གནང་།
Please lend me the key to the new lock.
ལྡེ་མིག་གཞན་ལ་མ་གཡར་ཆིབས་དཔོན་ཚོ།
Horse keepers, do not lend the key to others.
ལྡེ་མིག་གཞན་ལ་གཡར་ན་ཁ་མཆུའི་རྒྱུ།
If you lend it to others, there will be disputes.
རྟ་ལ་ཉིས་སྟོང་ལྔ་བརྒྱ་སྤྲད་པ་ཡིན།
For the horse, two thousand five hundred was paid,
ལྔ་བཅུ་སྤྲད་པའི་ལིང་ཤང་གཡོག་རོགས་གནང་།
Please hang the fifty-stringed jingle bell (that was bought for fifty).
ད་ལོ་བསམ་གྲུབ་ཟག་པ་སྒ་རྒྱག་རེད།
This year, the excellent horse, Samdrub, can be saddled.
སྲས་ཆུང་སྐུ་ཞབས་དགུང་ལོ་བཅུ་ལྔ་རེད།
Our young master is fifteen years old.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼ཆིབས་རྭ་གསར་པ།༽
Stod Gzhas (New Stable)
A Young Man in Prince's Attire
ཞིང་གསར་གྲུ་བཞི་སྨྱུག་མ་སྐྱེས་ས་མ་རེད།
The new square field is not a place where purple bamboo grows.
ནོར་འཛིན་གསལ་སྒྲོན་སྨྱུག་གསར་གཞན་ལས་འདྲོང་བ།
Do you not see? Norbu Drolkar is more beautiful than a tender bamboo shoot.
ཨ་མའི་བུ་མོ་ནོར་འཛིན་གསལ་སྒྲོན།
The beloved daughter of her mother, Norbu Drolkar.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼ཞིང་གསར་གྲུ་བཞི།༽
Stod Gzhas (The New Square Field)
Fertile Field
ནག་ཆུང་སྲན་མས་གསོས་པའི།
I fed it with black peas,
ཆིབས་ཆེན་ལྷ་རྟ་ངང་པ།
The fine, divine swan-horse.
འགྲོས་ཆེན་འོག་གི་འགྲོས་ཆུང་།
With this fine horse I journeyed,
ལྷ་ལྡན་གཞུང་ལ་བརྒྱབ་སོང་།
My travels ended in the holy city.
ཆར་པ་འདི་རུ་བབས་བབས།
The sweet rain fell, fell down,
ལྷ་ལྡན་གཞུང་ལ་བབས་སོང་།
The rain fell upon the holy city.
ལྷ་ལྡན་ཕོ་གཞོན་མོ་གཞོན།
The young men and maids of the holy city,
དབུ་ཞྭའི་ཚོས་མདོག་ལོག་སོང་།
The color of their hats has all faded.
སྟོད་གཞས་༼ལྷ་རྟ་ངང་པ།༽
Stod Gzhas (The Divine Swan-Horse)
Holy City in the Rain