Thousands of people are gathered at an outdoor arena on the Tibetan plateau. School children sit waving Chinese flags. Tibetan prayer flags billow in a soft breeze. Among a throng of elated Tibetans stands a stone-faced Chinese police officer. On stage, entertaining them all, is Sherten, the famous Tibetan singer from Amdo. Sherten is dressed in his traditional Tibetan chuba and riding boots, numerous khatas are draped around his neck as he sings “Nyamdu Zom” (Come Together). What nobody in the audience knows is that the lyrics Sherten is singing were written by Sogshod Dhargye, a Tibetan exile living in India.
Dhargye has been performing songs since his childhood days in Tibet. He was part of his school dance team and regularly had chances to sing and dance on stage. In 2001, he fled from Tibet into exile in India. He had no plans to become a performer when he arrived. He only wanted to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama and he walked for 18 days over the Himalayas to realise this dream. After meeting His Holiness Dhargye “felt a deep satisfaction”; he then proceeded to make a life for himself in India.
Building a career as a performer is notoriously difficult for Tibetans in exile. There is a relatively tiny market for their work and it is difficult to get anything off the ground. This is a reality which Dhargye first encountered when he embarked on his music career in 2007. Performers are hired for shows at the various Tibetan settlements throughout India, they negotiate a price for their services with the organisers of events. Over the years, Dhargye has performed at settlements from Ladakh in the North to Bylakuppe in the South. These performances usually come on big stages with Dhargye singing over a karaoke style backing track.
“It’s a group of like-minded people travelling and performing together,” Dhargye says of the Tibetan exile performance circuit, “some settlements show a lot of support for the artists, others don’t.” Dhargye picks out the Ladakh, Bylakuppe and Mundgod settlements as the places with the best crowds. So far as the money goes, Dhargye says that the performers are lucky if they have their travel and living expenses covered.
In 2017, Dhargye made a concerted effort to break into a bigger market. He cut eight songs and sent them on a CD to a friend he met through social media forums in Chengdu [a city in the Kham region of Tibet, incorporated into Sichuan by China]. This friend pressed 2,000 copies and sent them for distribution across the Tibetan plateau. 1,000 copies were sent to Lhasa and 50 from this batch were sent onwards to Ngari in the far west of Tibet. The other 1,000 copies were distributed in the Kham and Amdo [Ch: Qinghai] regions. Unfortunately, Dhargye’s effort to spread his music through his homeland hit a snag: “The police in Ngari came to know that the CDs were made by a singer in exile,” he explains, “They have a list of the names of all the people who have escaped. There was nothing inflammatory in my lyrics. It’s just because I am from the so called “separatist community”. That’s why they banned my CD. My friend in Ngari who was helping me was banned from travelling outside of Ngari for a certain time.” Dhargye’s CDs met the same fate in Lhasa.
From his batch of 2,000 CDs, about a thousand were taken by the Chinese authorities. Only 100 copies were eventually sold, all in Kham or Amdo, where restrictions are less severe. Dhargye was hoping to get his songs heard by a few people and simply make back the cost of distribution, but that wasn’t to be. “I’d need to sell about 20,000 CDs to make a decent profit,” says, “but I’m usually happy if I can recover my initial costs.” In this instance Dhargye’s efforts were scuppered by the Chinese censors, but he still got a few songs in circulation, some of which have been picked up and performed by Tibetan singers like Sherten.
Among singers in exile, Dhargye’s songs have been performed by Gyang Dolma and Tenzin Kunsel. A spiritual he wrote was also performed by Tsering Gurmey at the Kalachakra initiation ceremony in Ladakh. Perhaps his most famous song is “Tibetan Girl”, which has been sung at the Tibetan Children’s Village and also picked up by singers in Tibet. Dhargye thinks, however, that there should be more opportunities for Tibetan singers to perform in exile; events akin to those on the plateau at which Sherten performs: “It would be nice if there was an environment in Dharamshala where people could perform. In Tibet there are places called Ngangma where singers are hired every day and their job is singing for customers. There is nothing like that here. I spoke to a former politician in the CTA (Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan Government-in-Exile) a few years ago who thought it would be good idea if we had something like that in the exile community, but nothing ever came about. It’s almost impossible to make a living as a singer in exile,” he continues, “but artists want to follow their passion for as long they can, even if they can’t make money. As for me, I just earn pocket money from my lyrics and tunes.”
Below is a link and lyrics of one of the song written and composed by Dhargye:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbMZFDOOWb8
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ། BodpiBumo(Tibetan Girl)
ཚིགསོག་ཤོད་དར་རྒྱས། Lyric: Sogshod Dhargye
གདངས། སོག་ཤོད་དར་རྒྱས། Composer:Sogshod Dhargye
གཞས་མ། བརྒྱད་དབྱངས་སྒྲོལ་མ། Singer: 8yang Dolma
ང་ནི་བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཡིན།། I am a Tibetan girl
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཡིན།། A little Tibetan girl
ཆུང་ཆུང་རེད་འདུག་མ་བསམ་དང།། Don’t take me for little
སྙིང་སྟོབས་རི་རྒྱལ་ལྷུན་པོ་ཡིན།། My courage is as enormous as the mountain king
ཨ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ནི་བསོ། —
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཡིན།། A little Tibetan girl
ང་ནི་བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཡིན།། I am a Tibetan girl
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་མཛེས་མ་ཡིན།། A beautiful Tibetan girl.
དཀྲོག་དཀྲོག་ཆེ་འདུག་མ་བསམ་དང།། Don’tassume it for arrogance
བྱམས་སེམས་ཆུ་མོ་དལ་འབབ་ཡིན།། My kindness flows like a gentle water fall
ཨ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ནི་བསོ།
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་མཛེས་མ་ཡིན།། A beautiful Tibetan girl
ང་ནི་བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཡིན།། I am Tibetan girl
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་མཛངས་མ་ཡིན།། A wise Tibetan girl
ཁ་ཕོ་ཆེ་འདུག་མ་བསམ་དང།། Don’t assume it for immodesty
ཤེས་རྒྱ་ནམ་མཁའི་མཐོངས་ཆེན་ཡིན།། I have the wisdom of the boundless sky
ཨ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ནི་བསོ། —–
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་མཛངས་མ་ཡིན།།A wise Tibetan girl.
ང་ནི་བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཡིན།། I am a little Tibetan girl
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཡ་རབས་ཡིན།། Amodest Tibetan girl
རང་བསྟོད་བྱས་འདུག་མ་བསམ་དང།། Don’t take it for self-praise
ལྷག་བསམ་གངས་རི་དཀར་པོ་ཡིན། My intention is as pure as a snow-mountain
ཨ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ཡ་ལ་ནི་བསོ། —-
བོད་པའི་བུ་མོ་ཡ་རབས་ཡིན།། A modest Tibetan girl
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