Monks playing dungchen, Tibetan long trumpets, from the roof of the Medical College, Lhasa, 1938Street musician playing a dramyin, Shigatse, Tibet, 1993
The new-age 'singing bowl' music marketed in the West as 'Tibetan music' is of 1970s US origin.
History
Western research into the history of Tibetan music has often focused more on religious than secular musics.[1] It has been suggested that Tibetan religious music may have been strongly influenced by West-Asian musics, including those of pre-Muslim Persia (and perhaps even of Byzantium).[2] It has also been suggested that the landscape – and in particular the resonances of caves, with their natural percussive sounding stones - exerted a formative influence on the overtone singing found in Tibetan Buddhist chant (and plausibly also in prehistoric shamanic invocations), which is produced by artful moulding of the oral cavity.[3] The assiduous adoption and evolution of Indian Buddhist traditions and culture in Tibet between the 12th and mid-20th centuries – in a period when Buddhism had disappeared from most of the Indian subcontinent - allowed the Tibetans to perpetuate musical practices from India that would otherwise have been lost, and to develop them in distinctive ways.[2] Although Tibetan religious music can appear quite separate from the major traditions that emerged in Indian music, some of the musical instruments actually descend from Indian monastic and tantric Buddhist contexts, including, for example, the dril-bu hand-bell, the characteristic hour-glass drums called damaru, and the thighbone trumpet (kangling), as used in the practice of chöd.[4]
The Lama Mani tradition — the telling of Buddhist parables through song — dates back to the 12th century. The songs were performed by wandering storytellers, who travelled from village to village, drawing on their own often humble origins to relate to people from all backgrounds. Vividly illustrated Buddhist thangka paintings depicted the narrative and helped the audience understand what was essentially a teaching.
Tibetan "street songs" were a traditional form of expression particularly popular as a means of political and other commentary in a country that was previously without newspapers or other means of mass communication. They provided political and social commentary and satire and are a good example of a bardic tradition, akin to that in medieval Europe or, more recently, the role calypsos played in the West Indies. As song lyrics in Tibet usually contained stanzas of 4 lines of 6 syllables each, the lyrics could be easily adapted to almost any melody.[5]
Secular Tibetan music has been promoted by organizations like the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. This organization specialized in the lhamo, an operatic style, before branching out into other styles, including dance music like toeshey and nangma. Nangma is especially popular in the karaoke bars of the urban center of Tibet, Lhasa. Another form of popular music is the classical gar style, which is performed at rituals and ceremonies. Lu are a type of traditional a cappella folk songs that feature glottal vibrations and high pitches.[6] There are also epic bards who sing of Tibet's national hero Gesar.
Musical instruments
Wind
Monk with Gyaling and hats. Key Monastery Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India
Dungchen (དུང་ཆེན་, literally "big conch") or rag-dung (རག་དུང་, literally "brass horn") - long horn made of copper and/or brass
Mkhar-rnga bcu-pa - set of 10 tuned gongs in a frame
Popular and modern
Street musicians. Lhasa. 1993Mother & son playing lute. Lhasa 1993
Tibetans have a very strong[vague] popular-music culture, and are also well represented in Chinese popular culture. Tibetan singers are particularly known for their strong vocal abilities, which many attribute to the high altitudes of the Tibetan Plateau. Tseten Dolma (才旦卓玛) rose to fame in the 1960s for her music-and-dance suite "The East is Red". Kelsang Metok (格桑梅朵) is a popular singer who combines the vocal traditions of Tibet with elements of Chinese, Indian and Westernpop. Purba Rgyal (Pubajia or 蒲巴甲) was the 2006 winner of Jiayou! Haona'r (Chinese:加油！好男儿), a Chinese reality talent show. In 2006, he starred in Sherwood Hu's Prince of the Himalayas, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, set in ancient Tibet and featuring an all-Tibetan cast.
In the multi-ethnic provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan, whose Tibetan inhabitants are regarded as part of the "Amdo" cultural tradition, there is a very strong local scene, mostly exposed through videos on local buses. Amdo stars are among others Sherten (short for Sherab Tendzin)[7][user-generated source] and Yadong, who both have reached outside the borders of China with their music.
Foreign styles of popular music have also had a major impact within the Tibetan diaspora, where Indian ghazal and filmi are very popular and American rock has produced the India-based Rangzen Shonu. Within Tibet itself, among rock groups the bilingual Vajara (Tian Chu)[Chinesescriptneeded] sextants are the oldest and most famous act.[8] Since the relaxation of some laws in the 1980s, Tibetan pop, popularised by the likes of Yadong (Tibet), Dadon (now living in the US), Jampa Tsering (Tibet), 3-member group AJIA, 4-member group Gao Yuan Hong, five-member group Gao Yuan Feng, are well known. Gaoyuan Hong in particular has introduced elements of Tibetan language rapping into their singles. Alan Dawa Dolma is the first and currently only artist of Tibetan ethnicity to be active in both Chinese and Japanese music industry.
Tibetan dancing
Western representations
Although it is sometimes stated that 'Tibetan singing bowls' date back to a pre-Buddhist, shamanicBon-Po tradition, the manufacture and use of bowls specifically for the purpose of 'singing' (as opposed to standing bells/bowls that are intended to be struck) is believed to be a modern and non-Tibetan phenomenon.[9] The historical records and accounts of the music of Tibet are silent about singing bowls. Such bowls are not mentioned by Perceval Landon (a visitor in 1903–1904) in his notes on Tibetan music, nor by any other visitor.[9]
Wolff and Hennings' seminal recording Tibetan Bells was followed by the development of a unique style of American singing bowl music often marketed as 'Tibetan music'.[10] This has remained very popular in the US with many recordings being marketed as World music or New-age music since the introduction of those terms in the 1980s.[11] 'Tibetan singing bowls' have as a result become a prominent visual and musical symbol of Tibet,[10] to the extent that the most prevalent modern representation of Tibet within the US is that of bowls played by Americans.[12]
Gallery
Musician at Tibetan Children's Village, Dharamsala
↑ Goldstein, Melvyn C. (Spring–Summer 1982). "Lhasa Street Songs: Political and Social Satire in Traditional Tibet". The Tibet Journal. VII (1/2): 56–66.
Zhao Jie (赵洁) (2023). 曹光平無伴奏唱《卓魯•西藏牧歌》的創作. 創作音樂 (in Chinese). 2023 (3): 162–167.
Henrion, Isabelle; Jones, Stephen (2000). Broughton, Simon; Ellingham, Mark; McConnachie, James; Duane, Orla (eds.). World Music: The Rough Guide, vol. 2: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific. Rough Guides. p.257. ISBN9781858286365.
Tibet, or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi). It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups such as Mongols, Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa, Lhoba, and since the 20th century Han Chinese and Hui. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 4,380 m (14,000 ft). Located in the Himalayas, the highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848 m (29,000 ft) above sea level.
Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China.
The music of China consists of many distinct traditions, often specifically originating with one of the country's various ethnic groups. It is produced within and without the country, involving either people of Chinese origin, the use of traditional Chinese instruments, Chinese music theory, or the languages of China. It includes traditional classical forms and indigenous folk music, as well as recorded popular music and forms inspired by Western culture.
Jampa Tsering was a Chinese singer and dancer. He is of Tibetan ethnicity.
Buddhist culture is exemplified through Buddhist art, Buddhist architecture, Buddhist music and Buddhist cuisine. As Buddhism expanded from the Indian subcontinent it adopted artistic and cultural elements of host countries in other parts of Asia.
Buddhist music is music created for or inspired by Buddhism and includes numerous ritual and non-ritual musical forms. As a Buddhist art form, music has been used by Buddhists since the time of early Buddhism, as attested by artistic depictions in Indian sites like Sanchi. While certain early Buddhist sources contain negative attitudes to music, Mahayana sources tend to be much more positive to music, seeing it as a suitable offering to the Buddhas and as a skillful means to bring sentient beings to Buddhism.
Samye, full name Samye Mighur Lhundrub Tsula Khang and Shrine of Unchanging Spontaneous Presence, is the first Tibetan Buddhist and Nyingma monastery built in Tibet, during the reign of King Trisong Deutsen. Shantarakshita began construction around 763, and Tibetan Vajrayana founder Guru Padmasambhava tamed the local spirits for its completion in 779. The first Tibetan monks were ordained there. Samye was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution then rebuilt after 1988.
The Tibetan horn or dungchen (Tibetan: དུང་ཆེན།, Wylie: dung chen, ZYPY: tungqên, literally "big conch," also called rag dung is a long trumpet or horn used in Tibetan Buddhist and Mongolian buddhist ceremonies. It is the most widely used instrument in Tibetan Buddhist culture. It is often played in pairs or multiples, and the sound is compared to the singing of elephants. Tsultrim Allione described the sound:
It is a long, deep, whirring, haunting wail that takes you out somewhere beyond the highest Himalaya peaks and at the same time back into your mother's womb.
A standing bell or resting bell is an inverted bell, supported from below with the rim uppermost. Such bells are normally bowl-shaped, and exist in a wide range of sizes, from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter. They are often played by striking, but some—known as singing bowls—may also be played by rotating a suede covered mallet around the outside rim to produce a sustained musical note.
The Ashtamangala is the sacred set of Eight Auspicious Signs featured in a number of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The symbols or "symbolic attributes" are yidam and teaching tools. Not only do these attributes point to qualities of enlightened mindstream, but they are the investiture that ornaments these enlightened "qualities". Many cultural enumerations and variations of the Ashtamangala are extant.
Norbulingka is a palace and surrounding park in Lhasa, China built from 1755. It served as the traditional summer residence of the successive Dalai Lamas from the 1780s up until the 14th Dalai Lama's exile in 1959. Part of the "Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace", Norbulingka is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was added as an extension of this Historic Ensemble in 2001. It was built by the 7th Dalai Lama and served both as administrative centre and religious centre. It is a unique representation of Tibetan palace architecture.
Tibet developed a distinct culture due to its geographic and climatic conditions. While influenced by neighboring cultures from China, India, and Nepal, the Himalayan region's remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved distinct local influences, and stimulated the development of its distinct culture.
A damaru is a small two-headed drum, used in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. In Hinduism, the damaru is known as the instrument of the Hindu deity Shiva, associated with Tantric traditions. It is said to be created by Lord Shiva to produce spiritual sounds by which the whole universe has been created and regulated. In Tibetan Buddhism, the damaru is used as an instrument in meditation practices.
Kyabje Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche was a major modern teacher in the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and patron of the Vajrayana Foundation. He was the eldest son of Dudjom Rinpoche, the former head of the Nyingma lineages, and also the father of Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche and Dungse Garab Rinpoche. His association with the Dudjom Lineage is a long one: he is held to be the incarnation of Tulku Drime Oser, who was one of seven sons of Dudjom Lingpa. He also was considered to be an emanation of Longchen Rabjam, the great 14th-century Nyingma scholar and siddha who composed the Seven Treasuries. He died in California on December 26, 2011, according to the Tibetan Buddhist Lunar Calendar the 2nd day of the 11th month of the Iron Rabbit year. His cremation was held in a public buddhist cremation ceremony in Paro, Bhutan on March 3, 2012, which was attended by several thousand people, including some of Bhutan's royal family.
GyutoTantric University is one of the great monastic institutions of the Gelug Order.
Sakya PanditaKunga Gyeltsen was a Tibetan spiritual leader and Buddhist scholar and the fourth of the Five Sakya Forefathers. Künga Gyeltsen is generally known simply as Sakya Pandita, a title given to him in recognition of his scholarly achievements and knowledge of Sanskrit. He is held in the tradition to have been an emanation of Manjusri, the embodiment of the wisdom of all the Buddhas.
The gyaling, literally "Indian trumpet", is a traditional woodwind instrument used in Tibet. As its name indicates, it is the Chinese double reed Suona horn used mainly in Tibetan monasteries during puja and is associated with peaceful deities and the idea of devotion.
Lhamo, or Ache Lhamo, is a classical secular theatre of Tibet with music and dance that has been performed for centuries, whose nearest western equivalent is opera. Performances have a narrative and simple dialogue interspersed with comedy and satire; characters wear colorful masks. The core stories of these theatrical plays are drawn mostly from ancient Indian Buddhist folk tales, lives of important people and historical events from Tibetan civilization. However the ceremonial, dance and ritual spectacles strongly reflects the Tibetan Royal Dynastic period.
Vajara is Tibet's oldest and most famous rock and roll band. Founded in 1999 by six Tibetan people, the band creates modern music with elements from Tibetan opera, blues, and rap. Tenzin Dawa, the band's founder, was influenced by both Chinese rock acts such as Cui Jian and American rock bands like Nirvana but desired to forge a style separate from either genre. Vajara's songs are sung in both Tibetan and Chinese, with lyrical themes that address social issues such as greed and environmentalism. The band's main performing venue is a musical bar in Tibet's provincial capital of Lhasa.
Kyabchen Dedrol,, is a Tibetan contemporary writer. Born in Chukhama, Chokho (ཁྲོ་ཁོ་ཆུ་ཁ་མ།), a nomadic community in Amdo in the 1970s, Dedrol is the co-founder and editor in chief of Butter Lamp (མཆོད་མེ་བོད་ཀྱི་རྩོམ་རིག་དྲ་བ།) the first online Tibetan-language literary journal. Dedrol reads world literature extensively through English and Chinese, and has translated numerous short stories, poetry, and technology reviews from English and Chinese into Tibetan language.
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