The Voice of Tsang, Gypsy-like Artist ▎Celebrated Luminaries of the Holy City (V)

ཕ་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་ནས་ཡོང་དུས།

When I came from my native land,

སུ་ཡང་དྲན་པ་མ་བྱུང།

I thought of no one at all.

ལ་མོ་གཅིག་བརྒྱབ་གཉིས་བརྒྱབ།

After crossing one or two mountain passes,

སྐྱིད་པའི་ཡབ་ཡུམ་དྲན་བྱུང་།

I longed for my kind parents.

སྟོད་གཞས་༼གཙང་སྟོད་དབུས་གཞུང་།༽

Stod Gzhas (Wandering in Ü-Tsang)

Wandering artist

The Tsang (གཙང་།) region is renowned for its songs and dances. Its musical style is just like the whistling mountain wind, also like the neighing of a fine steed—bright, open, and full of vitality.

Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (18th century)

Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen once wrote in his musical treatise "Treatise on Music" (རོལ་མོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།):

སྤྱིར་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི་ན་ཡང་།
In this world at large,
ཡུལ་དང་དུས་ཀྱི་བྱེ་བྲག་དང་།
If one considers differences in place and time,
དབྱངས་ཀྱི་སྦྱོར་བ་དུ་མ་མཐོང་།
One sees many variations in melodic expression.

དབུས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལྡེང་ཞིང་འགྱུར།
The Üpas (Central Tibetans) are resonant and mellifluous.
གཙང་པ་འཚེར་ཞིང་གསལ་བ་ཡིན།
The Tsangpas are piercing and bright.
གཙེར་ཞིང་བདུད་པ་མངའ་རིས་པ།
The Ngari (Western Tibetans) are terse and concise.
ཁམས་པ་རྣམས་ནི་བརྗིད་ཅིང་གྱོང་།
The Khampas are majestic and fierce.

Many singers from Tsang, for various reasons, left their homeland far behind and wandered in strange lands. We might call them "Gypsy-like artists." Though their lives were hard, during their long years of wandering, they spread the music of Tsang throughout the Himalayas—from the desolate valleys of Kashmir to the city of Lhasa, from the grasslands of Amdo to the dense forests of Sikkim, the footprints of these artists can be found.

Wandering Traveler (1937, Photo by Fosco Maraini)

From the 1950s to the 1980s, artists represented by Chungbu Trid and Pema (ཆུང་བུ་ཁྲིད་དང་པད་མ།), a couple, and the musician Nyima Lags (ཉི་མ་ལགས།) introduced the unique artistic style of Tsang into major art ensembles, leaving an indelible mark on the history of Tibetan song and dance.

Pema (1960s, included in the Collection of Stod Gzhas "Norbu Chödrön")

In the early 20th century, Pema was born in the Kongpo region (ཀོང་པོ།) of eastern Tibet. During his youth, he performed as a street artist in Lhasa. Later, he studied under Sakya Lags (ས་སྐྱ་ལགས།), a musician of the Nangma Gytuk, learning Stod Gzhas and Nangma dance, as well as instruments such as the Dramyin and flute.

Sakya Lags (1930s)

The last court musician, Basang Dondrup, once recalled: "On the fourth day of the sixth month of midsummer (དྲུག་པ་ཚེས་བཞི།, the day the Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma), the people of Lhasa would go to the northern hills for a pilgrimage. After descending, they would have picnics in the gardens. At such times, Pema Lags would sing and play his lute in the groves. His melodious voice was beloved by all."

Lhasa in Midsummer (2018, Photo by a Friend)

A few years later, Pema left Lhasa and went to the Tsang region. In Shigatse, he met Chungbu Trid.

Chungbu Trid (1960s)

Chungbu Trid was similar in age to Pema. She was born in 1920 in Xaitongmoin County, Tsang. Gifted with a beautiful voice and a talent for singing and dancing, she lost both her parents due to the family's poverty. Alone, she went to Shigatse and began her life as a street performer. Later, she and Pema married and became a renowned artistic duo in the Shigatse region. Their footprints could be found all over Tibet, as well as in countries such as Sikkim, Bhutan, and Nepal.

Shigatse (1938, Photo by Ernst Schäfer)

While wandering in Shigatse, Chungbu Trid and her husband Pema formed a deep friendship with Nyima Lags, a renowned local musician.

Nyima Lags (1980s, included in the Collection of Stod Gzhas "Norbu Chödrön")

Nyima Lags was skilled in playing musical instruments. His family ran the largest tavern in Shigatse at the time. In his youth, he eloped with his lover to Sikkim, making a living as a street performer in places like Darjeeling. Later, he returned to his hometown and became a resident performer at the family tavern.

Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse (1950s)

Career Change – 1956

 

The first half of these artists' lives was filled with the hardships of leaving home and wandering. The year 1956 became a turning point in their lives.

Lhasa (1950s)

With the establishment of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region, Chungbu Trid, her husband Pema, and their daughter Tseden represented various art ensembles from the Tsang region in a performance of Stod Gzhas at the committee's founding gala. Pema played the yangqin, Chungbu Trid was the lead vocalist, and their young daughter Tseden danced beside them. This family performance was a great success.

The Family of Chungbu Trid
From left: Tseden, Pema, Chungbu Trid
(1950s)

Subsequently, the family of Chungbu Trid was invited to Beijing, where the couple served as instructors of traditional Tibetan song and dance arts in the Music Department of the Minzu University of China.

The Family of Chungbu Trid (1960s)

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Chungbu Trid, her husband Pema, and Nyima Lags long engaged in teaching and performing arts at the Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetan Opera Troupe and the Song and Dance Ensemble.

Nyima Lags (playing the yangqin)
(1980s, included in "Historical Narratives of Tibetan Music")

Meanwhile, Chungbu Trid integrated the traditional singing style of Tsang into the Stod Gzhas and Nangma of the Lhasa region, transforming the melodious and gentle tunes into a lively and cheerful style. This artistic innovation created a completely new style in the Lhasa area, which later had a profound impact during the revival of ancient folk music in the 1980s.

Chungbu Trid (1960s, included in the Collection of Stod Gzhas "Norbu Chödrön")

གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་ལ་ག་རེ་ཡོད་རེད།
What is there in Shigatse?
གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་ལ་གཙང་མོ་ཡོད་རེད།
In Shigatse, there are fair maidens.
གཙང་མོའི་སྤ་སྒོར་སྒང་ལ།
Upon the maidens' headdresses,
མུ་ཏིག་ཆབ་ཆབ་ཡོད་རེད།
Glisten pearls, drop by drop.
གང་ནས་ཡིན་པ་གསུང་གིས།
If you ask from whence I come,
གཏན་གཏན་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་མ་བྱུང་།
A full account was never given.
གཏན་གཏན་ཞུ་དགོས་བྱུང་ན།
If a full account must be given,
ལྷ་ལྡན་གཞུང་ནས་ཡིན་པ།
I come from the realm of Lhasa.

Stod Gzhas: "Siji Bijii"

Tibetan Women in Traditional Attire from Tsang
(1938, Photo by Ernst Schäfer)

བྱ་ཚང་རྒོད་ཚང་རི་ལ།
Upon the mountain of Jatsang Götsang,
སིམ་སིམ་མ་ལས་ཧོ།
So serene, ho!
འཛེགས་ཤིང་འཛེགས་ཤིང་ཕྱིན་པས།
Ascending, ever ascending,
རྒོད་ཕྲུག་ཀླུ་བདུད་རྡོད་རྗེ།
The young eagle, Ludü Dorje,
སིམ་སིམ་མ་ལས་ཧོ།
So serene, ho!
གསེར་ཁྲིའི་སྟེང་དུ་བཞུགས་ཡོད།
Sits upon a golden throne.

Stod Gzhas: "Jatsang Götsang"

Mountains

བྲག་སྟོད་དཀར་པོ་མ་གསུངས་།
Speak not of the white house on the cliff,
བླ་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཁང་གསུངས་དང་།
Speak of the master's meditation retreat.
སྒྲུབ་ཁང་ཉི་མ་དྲོ་ལ།
In the retreat, the morning sun is warm,
སྒྲུབ་ཆུ་ཁ་མངར་ལྡན་པ།
The spring water is sweet to taste.
སྒྲུབ་པ་ལོ་གསུམ་བརྒྱབ་པས།
The practitioner spent three years there,
སྒྲུབ་སྐྲ་སྐེད་པ་ཟིན་སོང་།
His uncut hair grew to his waist.
ཡང་བསྐྱར་ལོ་གསུམ་བརྒྱབ་པས།
Another three years passed,
སྒྲུབ་སྐྲ་ས་ལ་འཁྱིལ་སོང་།
His hair now swept the ground.

Stod Gzhas: "Drak Tö Karpo"

The Venerable Milarepa (17th century)