Techung Sings Namthar Part 2- བཀྲས་ཆུང་ལགས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར། ལེའུ་2

Techung sings arias of Elders རྒྱ་ལུའི་རྣམ་ཐར།
Techung is a Tibetan traditional musician and an opera singer.
These Namthar or arias belong to the character Gyalu in Tibetan opera known as Ache Lhamo. The Gyalu is the elder among the performer who blesses the stage during the consecration or known as Jinbeb རྒྱུ་ལུའི་བྱིན་འབེབས།
Tibetans love Ache Lhamo or Lhamo which combines, story telling, music, dance, masks and arias. It is believed that Thangtong Gyalpo, a renowned scholar and saint from Shigatse County founded the tradition in 14th century but the origin of the performance of mask dances may dates back to ancient times.
When Thangtong Gyalpo saw the residents of his town undertaking dangerous travel to
cross the mighty rivers of Tibet to gain access to Dharma,
he deeply felt the need to build bridges over these rivers to
save people’s lives. Thangtong Gyalpo needed resources
to build these bridges, so he founded Tibetan Opera as a
means to fund his project. Among his work force he trained
seven sisters who were adept as singers and dancers, and
they performed while Thangtong Gyalpo himself played the
drum and cymbal. Onlookers, struck by the beauty of the
seven sisters and the grace of the performances, exclaimed
that the sisters were like goddesses themselves performing.
Thus the term Ache Lhamo, meaning “goddess sister” was
coined for Tibetan Opera. Opera was very popular in Tibet,
and by the 19th century each major district had a permanent
troupe of its own.
Tibetan Opera is traditionally performed in the open air under
a broad canopy. In old Tibet a performance could last several
days, and so was regarded fondly like a fair or picnic. The
stories in Tibetan Opera focus on Buddhist thoughts such
as compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and the law of cause
and effect. There are ten opera repertoires, and much of the
performance is left to the imagination of the audience as the
stage is devoid of scenery or props. The rhythmic recitation
of verses and singing called namthar is unique to Tibetan
Opera, and enthusiasts listen to it keenly.
Tibetan Opera always begins with an introductory rite
consisting of three prominent characters: Ngonpa (the blue-
masked hunter), Gyalu (the elder), and Rigna (the Dakinis).
They open the performance with a stage-purification dance.
After this, the narrator offers a prelude to the story as it
unfolds.
In keeping the tradition of Tibetan Opera alive, the annual
Shoton Festival is held in India. During this week-long opera
festival, each opera troupe presents a full day’s performance.
However, Tibetan Opera is now commonly adapted to a two-
hour format to meet the scarcity of time in the West.
The arias here are performed in the beginning of the Lhamo. They are sung as blessings and consecration of the stage. English translation will be available soon.
དུས་བཟང་དེ་རིང་ལས་སྐྱིད་པའི་ཉི་མ། ཤར་གྱི་ཕྱོགས་ནས་ཤར་བྱུང་།
གླུ་དང་གར་ལ་མཉེས་པའི། རོལ་མོའི་ཆོས་དབྱངས་འབུལ་ལོ།
Theme: Auspicious Time
གངས་རི་ར་བས་བསྐོར་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ།། (ཞིང་མཆོག་དང་པོ་དེ་ལ་གནས་ཆེན་པོ་ཏ་ལ་རུ།)
ཕན་དང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་བའི་གནས།།
༧སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡི།།
ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག།
English translation:
Ramparts of Snow Mountains
In the land rampartes by snow mountains,
one who is the source of all good and happiness,
all-powerful Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso,
please remain until samsara ends.
ཨོ་ས་སྟི། སྟོན་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།
དང་པོ་རྒྱ་ལུ་ཡིད་འཕྲོག་ལྷ་མོའི་།
རྣམ་ཐར་ལིའུ་ཁྲོད་ནས་འབུལ་ཡོད།
Theme: Prostration to the Buddha
བདག་ལ་ཡིད་འཕྲོག་རྣམ་པར་དག་པས། མཆོད་མཚམས་ལིའུ་ཕྲོད་ནས་འབུལ་ཡོད།
རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གླུ་རྒྱལ་ཕྱུག་པོ། ཅི་ནས་གླུ་གར་བཞེས་ལ་ཕེབས་དང་།
Theme: offering of music to the king of Naga or Water
ཨེ་མ་ལེགས།
དགའ་ལྡན་ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་ལ། གསིང་མའི་སྟག་གདན་གྲུ་བཞི།
ཆིབས་ཆེན་དབྱར་རྩ་བཞེས་ནས། ཕུན་ཚོགས་གླིང་ལ་ཕེབས་དང་།
Theme: Invitation to the Guests
ཨ་ལྕེ་ལྷ་མོའི་རྣམ་ཐར་སྒྲ་འཇུག་ལས་འཆར་འདིར་རོགས་སྐྱོར་གནང་མཁན་ཨ་རི་ནིའུ་ཡོག་མངའ་སྡེའི་རིག་གནས་རྒྱབ་སྐྱོར་ཚོགས་པ་ཡིན་པས་བཀྲིན་ཆེ་ཞུ་།
དེ་བཞིན་བོད་ཀྱི་ཟློས་གར་ཚོགས་པར་བཀྲིན་རྗེས་དྲན་དང་ནིའུ་ཡོག་དམངས་འཕྲོས་རིག་གཞུང་ཚོགས་པར་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ཞུ།།
༢༠༢༤ ཞོ་སྟོན་ཐོག་སྐབས་བཀྲས་ཆུང་རྒྱ་ལུའི་ན་ཟ་བཞེད་པའི་འདྲ་པར།
པར་པ་་།
སྒྲ་འཇུག་དང་མཉམ་བསྲེས་དོ་དམ་སྨིན་དྲུག།
བོད་ཀྱི་རོལ་དབྱངས་གཅེས་སྐྱོང་ཁང་ནས།།
The Tibetan Music Preservation (TMP) project would like to extend sincere thanks to the New York State Council for the Arts for its 2024 grant to record arias from Tibetan opera, known as Ache Lhamo.
TMP also wishes to thank the New York Folklore Society for its guidance and support. A huge gratitute to Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts for training me in Ache Lhamo.
Recorded and Mixed by Mindruk 2024
Photo by Sonam Tsering. Techung with Gyalu costume at the 2024 Shoton Festival
www.techung.com

[@tennordhasa6372]

❤❤❤

[@danhaig8900]

Amazing and powerful.

[@tashi282]

awesome! but clear & present danger is the Fake Gorshay spreading like wild fire-specially the new/next generation adopting it. Can Ex/Present TIPA can save our authentic Gorshay? The traditional Gorshay is so unique as people can dance, sing & play instrument simultaneously. Moreover, as younger Tibetans in the west are hard on spoken Tibetan-traditional Gorshay will play an important role as sing along will add values.

[@Gangrirawai]

Yes and we are all concerned. We have lot to do we love traditional Gorshey with all our heart. ❤ We will safe it.