Video Overview
A song from Ngari performed by a female singer and describing an epic journey of a man named "Turquoise Leaf" (gyu lo) in quest of music through the three realms. These three realms are an ancient tripartite Tibetan cosmological scheme that preceded Buddhism but has persisted to the present, each presided over by a particular kind of non-human agent: the realm of the gods above, the realm of the tsen spirits below, and the realm of the serpent spirits below. In each realm the lord of that realm - who goes by the name of Indra, the traditional "lord of the gods" in Vedic religion in India and well known to Tibetans from Buddhist sources - is beseeched to open the gateway to song, or music.
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་མ་ཕྱིན་གཡུ་ལོ་ཕྱིན༎Turquoise Leaf didn't stay, Turquoise Leaf went,
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་སྟེང་ཕྱོགས་ལྷ་ལ་རུ་ཕྱིན་ལ༎Turquoise Leaf went to the gods of the upperworld -
- ཀལྷ་ཡི་དབང་པོ་བརྒྱ་ལ་བྱིན༎ གཡུ་ལོ་ང་དང་ནི་མཇལ་ལ་རང་བྱུང་ལོ༎I, Turquoise Leaf, personally met Indra, the lord of the gods.
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་ཁྱེད་ལ་ཅི་དགོས་ཟེར༎(Indra asked:)Turquoise Leaf, what do you need?
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་ཁྱེད་ལ་ནི་གང་ལ་དགོས་ཟེར་ལ༎Turquoise Leaf, what do you want?
- ཀགཞན་དག་ང་ལ་དགོས་པ་མེད༎(Turquoise Leaf replied):I don't need anything except this -
- ཀགཞས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་མོ་ནི་ཕྱེ་ལ་རོགས་གནང་དང་༎Please help open the gateway to song.
- ཀགཞས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་མོ་ཕྱེ་བ་ལ༎ ཁྱེད་ལ་གཞས་དཔོན་ནི་ག་ལ་ཚོད་ཡོད་ལ༎(Indra asked:)How many master singers do you have for opening the gateway to song?
- ཀགཞས་དཔོན་མང་གཅིག་ང་ལ་མེད༎(Turquoise Leaf replied:)I don't have many master singers,
- ཀརྡོག་སྒྲ་འགྲིགས་པོ་ནི་བཅོ་ལ་བརྒྱད་ཡོད་ལ་ནི༎But I have eighteen excellent dancers,
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་ང་དང་ནི་བཅུ་ལ་དགུ་ཡོད་ལ༎And including I, Turquoise Leaf, nineteen.
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་མ་ཕྱིན་གཡུ་ལོ་ཕྱིན༎Turquoise Leaf didn't stay, Turquoise Leaf went,
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་བར་ཕྱོགས་སུ་བཙན་དུ་ཕྱིན་ལ༎Turquoise Leaf went to the tsen spirits of the middle world -
- ཀབཙན་གྱི་བཞུ་མར་བརྒྱ་ལ་བྱིན༎ གཡུ་ལོ་ང་དང་ནི་མཇལ་ལ་རང་བྱུང་ལ༎I, Turquoise Leaf, personally met Indra, the lamp (?) of the tsen spirits./
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་ཁྱེད་ལ་ཅི་དགོས་ཟེར༎(Indra asked:)Turquoise Leaf, what do you need?
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་ཁྱེད་ལ་ནི་གང་ལ་དགོས་ཟེར་ལ༎Turquoise Leaf, what do you want?
- ཀགཞན་དག་ང་ལ་འེ་དགོས་པ་མེད༎(Turquoise Leaf replied):I don't need anything except this -
- ཀགཞས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་མོ་ནི་ཕྱེ་ལ་རོགས་གནང་དང་༎Please help open the gateway to song.
- ཀགཞས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་མོ་ཕྱེ་བ་ལ༎ ཁྱེད་ལ་གཞས་དཔོན་ནི་ག་ལ་ཚོད་ཡོད་ལ༎How many master singers do you have for opening the gateway to song?
- ཀགཞས་དཔོན་མང་ཅིག་ང་ལ་མེད༎(Turquoise Leaf replied:)I don't have many masters singers,
- ཀརྡོག་སྒྲ་འགྲིགས་པོ་ནི་བཅོ་ལ་བརྒྱད་ཡོད༎But I have eighteen excellent dancers,
- ཀལ་ནི་གཡུ་ལོ་ང་དང་ནི་བཅུ་ལ་དགུ་ཡོད་ལ༎And including I, Turquoise Leaf, nineteen.
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་མ་ཕྱིན་གཡུ་ལོ་ཕྱིན༎Turquoise Leaf didn't stay, Turquoise Leaf went,
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་འོག་ཕྱོགས་ནི་ཀླུ་ལ་རུ་ཕྱིན་ལ༎Turquoise Leaf went to the serpent spirits of the underworld -
- ཀཀླུ་ཡི་ན་རོ་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་དེ༎ གཡུ་ལོ་ང་དང་ནི་མཇལ་ལ་རང་བྱུང་༎I, Turquoise Leaf, personally met Indra, the na ro (?) of the serpent spirits..
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་ཁྱེད་ལ་ཅི་དགོས་ཟེར༎(Indra asked:)Turquoise Leaf, what do you need?
- ཀགཡུ་ལོ་ཁྱེད་ལ་ནི་གང་ལ་དགོས་ཟེར་ལ༎Turquoise Leaf, what do you want?
- ཀགཞན་དག་ང་ལ་དགོས་པ་མེད༎(Turquoise Leaf replied):I don't need anything except this -
- ཀགཞས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་མོ་ནི་ཕྱེ་ལ་རོགས་གནང་དང་༎Please help open the gateway to song.
- ཀཕ་ལ་དམ་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོད༎(Our) father is the holy Buddha,
- ཀདམ་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡར་ལ་ཕེབས༎Holy Buddha, please go above.
- ཀཡར་ལ་ཕེབས་ནས་བག་ཆགས་བཞག༎Having gone above, please inspire us!
- ཀཡར་ལ་ཕེབས་ནས་སྒྲོ་འདོགས་གཅོད༎Having gone above, please eradicate our doubts!
- ཀབག་ཆགས་ཅིག་བཞག་ཡོད་ལ་ཨ་མའི་ཨོ་ལོ༎Inspiring us, the doubts of (we) children of the mother
- ཀསྒྲོ་འདོགས་ཅིག་བཅད་ཡོད་ལ་འཛོམས་པ་སྐྱིད༎Will be eradicated, and (we will) rejoice in assembly!
- ཀམ་ལ་རིགས་བཟང་མཁའ་འགྲོ་ཡོད༎(We have) a mother, the Dakini of noble lineage,
- ཀརིགས་བཟང་མཁའ་འགྲོ་ཡར་ལ་ཕེབས༎Dakini of noble lineage, please go above.
- ཀཡར་ལ་ཕེབས་ནས་བག་ཆགས་བཞག༎Having gone above, please inspire us!
- ཀཡར་ལ་ཕེབས་ནས་སྒྲོ་འདོགས་གཅོད༎Having gone above, please eradicate our doubts!
- ཀབག་ཆགས་ཅིག་བཞག་ཡོད་ལ་ཨ་མའི་ཨོ་ལོ༎Inspiring us, the doubts of (we) children of the mother
- ཀསྒྲོ་འདོགས་ཅིག་བཅད་ཡོད་ལ་འཛོམས་པ་སྐྱིད་ལ༎Will be eradicated, and (we will) rejoice in assembly!
Loading ... MEMO Memo: Filename: A0067 SongTitleEnglish: - SongTitleTibetan: - SongDescription: Note on translation: g.yu lo means 'turquoise leaf', but since it is a proper name, it has not been translated. Genre: Dancing song (zhabs bro gzhas) Instruments: Vocals: Tibetan Lyrics: g.yu lo ma phyin g.yu lo phyin // g.yu lo steng phyogs lha ru phyin // lha yi dbang po rgya la sbyin // g.yu lo nga dang ni mjal rang ni byung // g.yu lo khyed la ci dgos zer // g.yu lo khyed la gang dgos zer // gzhan dag nga la dgos pa med // gzhas kyi sgo mo phye rogs gnang // gzhas kiy sgo mo phye ba la // khyed la gzhas dpon ga tshod yod // gzhas dpon mang cig nga la med // rdog sgra 'grig po bco brgyad yod // g.yu lo nga dang bcu dgu yod // g.yu lo ma phyin g.yu lo phyin // g.yu lo bar phyogs btsan du phyin // btsan gyi bzhu mar rgya la sbying // g.yu lo nga dang mjal nas byung // g.yu lo khyed la ci dgos zer // g.yu lo khyed la gang dgos zer // gzhan dag nga la dgos pa med // gzhas kyi sgo mo phyeb rogs gnang // gzhas kyi sgo mo phye ba la // khyed la gzhas dpon ga tshod yod // gzhas dpon mang cig nga la med // rdog sgra 'grig po bco brgyad yod // g.yu lo nga dang bcu dgu yod // g.yu lo ma phyin g.yu lo phyin // g.yu lo 'og phyogs klu ru phyin // klu yi na ro rgya la sbyin de // g.yu lo nga dang mjal nas byung // g.yu lo khyed la ci dgos zer // g.yu lo khyed la gang dgos zer // gzhan dag ng la dgos pa med // gzhas kyi sgo mo phye rogs gnang // yar la dam pa sangs rgyas yod // yar la phebs nas bag chags bzhag // yar la phebs nas dro dwogs gcod // bag chags cig bzhag yod la a ma'i o lo // dro dwogs cig bcad yod la 'dzoms pa skyid // ma la rigs bzang mkha 'gro yod // rigs bzang mkha 'gro yar la phebs // yar la phebs nas bag chags bzhag // yar la phebs nas dro dwogs gcod // bag chags cig bzhag yod lo a ma'i o lo // dro dwogs cig bcad yod la 'dzoms pa skyid // English Lyrics: Yulo didn't stay, Yulo went. Yulo went up to the heavens. Wangpo Brahma of the Heavens And I, Yulo, got together. [Brahma asked:] Yulo, what do you want? Yulo, what do you need? [Yulo replied:] I don't need anything; Please give me a song. [Brahma asked:] Give you a song? How many master singers do you have? [Yulo replied:] I don't have many master singers, I have 18 excellent dancers. Including me, Yulo, we are 19. Yulo didn't stay, Yulo went. Yulo went to the surface world. Shumar Brahma of the surface world And I, Yulo, got together. [Brahma asked:] Yulo, what do you want? Yulo, what do you need? [Yulo replied:] I don't need anything; Please give me a song. [Brahma asked:] Give you a song? How many master singers do you have? [Yulo replied:] I don't have many master singers, I have 18 excellent dancers. Including me, Yulo, we are 19. Yulo didn't stay, Yulo went. Yulo went down to the underworld. Naro Brahma of the underworld And I, Yulo, got together. [Brahma asked:] Yulo, what do you want? Yulo, what do you need? [Yulo replied:] I don't need anything; Please give me a song. The Holy Buddha is above. Holy Buddha, please come! Your coming will bring benefit, Your coming will cut through doubts. Bringing benefit for the Mother's son, Cutting through doubts for the happy assembly. The Mother, a Dakini of noble lineage. Dakini of noble lineage, please come! Your coming will bring benefit, Your coming will cut through doubts. Bringing benefit for the Mother's son, Cutting through doubts for the happy assembly. Artists: Artist Region: Ngari Ruthok (mnga' ris sa khul ru thog rdzong ru thog shang) Song Region: Ngari Ruthok (mnga' ris sa khul ru thog rdzong ru thog shang) Translator: Tsering Gyalpo, R. Kirk Moore Transcriber: tshe ring rgyal po RecordingLocation: Ngari Ruthok (mnga' ris sa khul ru thog rdzong ru thog shang) Duration: 5:35 RecordingDate: 2000-08-16 MediumType: mini DV tape MediumID: 8/16 ru thog CDTrack: StartTime: 55:08 StopTime: 1:00:43 SessionId: S0008 LANGUAGE INFO Specific Dialect: Ngari ruthok Speech Type: Song MASTER TAPE INFO Tape Label: 8/16 ru thok Master Tape Label: NDRP Master 1 Recorded: 2000-08-02.
Description continued: After this three part quest, the song shifts register to a Buddhist tone, by addressing the Buddha as the father and the Dakini as the mother of the community. Both are located "above" in a realm which clearly transcends all together the three-part world invoked in the preceding. They are requested despite their transcendence to continue to inspire the members of the community, their children, so that they too might eventually proceed upwards into the transcendent spaces of enlightenment. Thus, the upward trajectory of transcendence contrasts to the earlier threefold descent through a non-Buddhist cosmology. The invocation of the Buddha and Dakini as the ultimate progenitors of this Tibetan community also invokes the centuries old rewriting of Tibetan history where Buddhist deities displace clan ancestral deities as the central ancestors and iconic force in the Tibetan spiritual landscape. The fact that the quest for music proceeds through a non-Buddhist cosmology, but ends up with a "song" that is profoundly Buddhist in character gives the song an interesting tension and hybrid tone characteristic of so much of the Tibetan assimilation of Buddhism.
