I’m Not Happy
Namchak (literally ‘Sky Metal’) is the oldest and the most famous Tibetan rock band. They have released three albums. The band members are: Tenzin Dawa, Sonam Nyandak, Phurbu Nyudup, Tashi Phuntsok, Sonam Tenzin and Sonam Nyima. The band members write and perform their own music, and they are especially pop..
Milarepa
Milarepa is the 11th century Tibetan saint who is revered for having attained enlightenment in one lifetime. He left behind a rich tradition of mgur, spontaneous songs of realization that are also religious poems. Milarepa Singer: Jamyang Gyatso Composer: Yonten Gyatso Lyricist: Jigme Nubpa You saved your father’s ..
A Special Feeling
Rongwo Gedun Lhundup is a well known poet for his free verse. Born in Amdo, he studied Buddhism as a monk in Rongwo, Labrang and Serta Monasteries. He has published five books of poetry. They are “The Sound of the Yak and the Wild Yak”; “The Poem of the Great Deity”; “The Black Rosary̶..
How contemporary Tibet might’ve been seen by a Tang dynasty historian
Gurgon Kyab was born in Chentsa in Amdo, Tibet, part of Qinghai province. He is a historian, writer and scholar. He graduated with a Master’s degree in History from Qinghai Nationalities University in Xining in 2004. He compiled a Tibetan language text book in 2008 for university students and has published two bo..
Is Nationalism a Good Thing?
Shokjang is a leading intellectual of his generation. He was born in Labrang in Amdo. He studied Tibetan literature at the Northwest Nationalities University in Lanzhou. He has published four books: The Courage of the Path (ལམ་གྱི་སྙིང་སྟོབས།); The Pen’s Strength (སྙུ་ག..
Shut Your Dog’s Mouth
Chen Metak (གཅན་མེ་སྟག) is a very well-known Tibetan writer from Amdo. The poem “Shut Your Dog’s Mouth” is a sarcastic poem written to criticize a certain unnamed person. It was published in December 2014 on Chodmey (Butter Lamp) online journal, one of the most popular online journals. We have..
An Old Thangka
Thopa Rangdrol writes under the pen name Shoklung (Morning Wind). He was born in Amdo Golok in the 1980s. He has studied at Serta Monastry and Rongwo monastery in Tibet. His writings were published on several Tibetan magazines including the “Nationalities Literary Magazine”. He has published a book called &..
Dear Bureau Chief, don’t block our way
Tibetans have been debating about Tibetan Language preservation for a while. Fortunately, in recent years, these debates have turned into a movement or protests led by Tibetans students in Tibet, in places as Amdo Rebkong and Chabcha. A few months back, Tibetans on WeChat were criticizing two local Chinese chiefs of th..
Who Is The Hero Who Carries Half the Sky?
Boshuk Kyi is from Trika, south of the Kokonor in Amdo. She works at the Qinghai Research Center for Tibetan Medicine (མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་ཀྱི་གསོ་རིག་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ཁང་།) and studies at the Qinghai Tibetan Medical School (མཚོ་སྔོན་གས..
These Days
In 2009, the Wolf Band released their first album “Brother” (ཕུ་བོ) and in 2011, they released their second album “The Wolf Looks Back” (རི་སྤྱང་གི་ཕྱི་མིག). They have played at concerts in different parts of Tibet, and are the second rock band in Tibet after Namcha..
The First Howl
In 2009, the Wolf Band released their first album “Brother” (ཕུ་བོ) and in 2011, they released their second album “The Wolf Looks Back” (རི་སྤྱང་གི་ཕྱི་མིག). They have played at concerts in different parts of Tibet, and are the second rock band in Ti..
On Translating the Kangyur and Tengyur into English
The Kangyur and Tengyur are the vast corpus of Buddhist literature. The Kangyur are the Buddha’s teachings and the Tengyur are the commentaries written over by Indian masters. Over the course of centuries, Tibetan translators translated this entire corpus into Tibetan and now this literature, which originally cam..
Tibetan Spelling Mistakes and More
Shokjang was born in Labrang in Amdo. He studied Tibetan literature at the Northwest Nationalities University in Lanzhou. He is a leading intellectual of his generation. He has published four books: The Courage of the Path (ལམ་གྱི་སྙིང་སྟོབས།); The Pen’s Strength (སྙུ་..
Why Are People Fighting Over The Caterpillar Fungus?
Recently there was a fight between two villages in Tibet over caterpillar fungus. As a result of this fighting, a young man of thirty was stabbed and killed. These two villages, called Kude and Dornying Nyalung, were both in Rebkong in Amdo. There were even four or five op-eds written about this brouhaha on the literar..
Listen. Where Is That Bark Coming From?
Sangdor is a well-known Tibetan writer who has published five books. In particular, his book “Tulphod”, with its new metered verses, created a literary stir among Tibetan writers. He is the former editor of Sangdor website which was shut down recently. This piece was published on Rangdrol blog in 2012. Listen. ..
